INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) — Harley Davidson motorcycles are worth a lot of money, but for a freedom man, his bike has sentimental value far more than monetary value.
Danny Shockey’s 2000 Harley Davidson Deuce was stolen from his front yard on Friday morning, despite being inside a gate, double-locked, with three cameras watching it.
“That night there was a storm and there was a strong thunder. The electricity was going out. Trees are falling. I really had no clue what was happening, slept through it,” he said.
Even the family’s Doberman pinscher dog did not hear the thief.
The motorcycle is unique in its kind due to the custom paint job.
It was plain black. When Shockey got it, he had turned it into something special. The black and two tone wood grain design is meant to look like a whiskey barrel. It is as a tribute to his late father.
“The front of the frame says ‘F cancer’ because my father passed away in 2013 from lung cancer,” he quips.
The bike features an even more special tribute to his mother, who died in 2019 painted a purple butterfly.
“I had kept some of his ashes there. So it was like she was always riding with me when I went on her,” Shockey sad.
He felt a connection to his mother while riding across the country, including the Sturgis pandemic the year before.
“No matter what, she was always riding with me. But now someone else is riding my bike. It’s not fair,” he said.
The man who stole the motorcycle was caught on surveillance cameras of Shockey.
He appears to be in his mid-30s, likely with a slender build. The man has a brown goatee and walks with a metal prosthesis under his left knee.
The suspect had to open the front gate, and take his time picking up the two locks on the bike to be able to roll over, and possibly start and take off once it’s on the road.
Shocky hopes that the suspect sees the story, senses it, and returns the bike.
“Bikes mean a lot to me. For me to come out and find my bike, it’s devastating. So the best way to describe it is as having lost a loved one. And there is nothing you can do,” he said.
For Shockey it is not just a motorcycle, it is literally a part of his loving mother who was gentle, kind and comforting.
“At first I was nervous so I said ‘let me out on the street and see if anyone’s zoom camera has picked it up’. And when I got to my gate a butterfly came right here on top of me and it was there for a couple of minutes. I didn’t go inside for it. I looked at it as if my mother had sent me a signal, son, it would be all right,” he said.
A Harley Davidson motorcycle costs a penny, but for a freedom person, its sentimental value is enormous.
If you recognize the suspect, or see a motorcycle, you are asked to call the Independence Police.
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