Motorcycle Chop Shop Operating Out of Self-Storage Complex Busted by LoJack

  • September 27, 2011

Just five minutes after the LoJack system was activated on a stolen 2007 Yamaha YZR motorcycle, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Air-7, Parks Bureau police and the California Highway Patrol tracked the signal to a self-storage complex. They gained access to the complex and located and observed one male suspect stripping the victim’s stolen motorcycle.

Investigation revealed that the suspect had been operating a motorcycle repair business out of a 8×10 foot storage space. Inside the space, deputies recovered the stolen motorcycle, as well as parts – including cut up locks, frame parts and engines – to four other motorcycles stolen out of Orange County and Los Angeles County. License plates to two other stolen motorcycles were also located.

He was stripping motorcycles for parts to sell and cutting up the frames and selling those as scrap metal. The suspect was arrested for receiving stolen property and operating a chop shop.