Stolen Triumph T100 returned
after 46 years
Seventy-three year old Donald DeVault from Omaha, Nebraska had his 1953 Triumph Tiger 100 stolen 46 years ago in February 1967, shortly before the Summer of Love.
Almost 50 years on, US Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted the bike while it was on its way to Japan via the Port of Los Angeles. It was checked on the computer and came up as stolen, and DeVault is soon to be reunited with the bike that was uninsured when it was purloined.
In 1967, the T100 was valued at around £200. It's now valued at around £6000. It's hard to say whether DeVault has actually made any money due to inflation, but he's said to be glad anyway he's got the classic bike back—and in pretty much the same condition as when he last saw it, right down to the words 'Li'l Blue Bitch' airbrushed on the petrol tank.
You've heard all those tales about alien abduction and stuff disappearing into the Bermuda Triangle and suddenly turning up again? Well, no, we don't believe any of that crap either. But we do believe in amazing good fortune, which, given the fact that he's been minus his wheels for half a century and out of pocket by two hundred quid, maybe it ain't such good fortune after all.
It's not clear if anyone has been arrested or charged with any offence.
— Girl Happy
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