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by John_Deutzman from New York City

Last Post 1 day, 3 hours Ago


The Mysterious NYPD Scooter
May 20, 2008 | 10:57 PM
Category: News
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We couldn't believe it when we got a tip that a fully loaded NYPD scooter was for sale next to a gas station in Brewster, N.Y., but by the time we got there it was gone. We had to do lots of snooping around to find out who bought it and by the time we hooked up with him the scooter was for sale again!

It took dozens of phone calls and lots of legwork to track the recent life and rebirth of the scooter. Everyone involved with it seemed legit but you have to worry about something like that eventually being sold to someone with bad intentions. It looks like we broke the chain and now the stripped-down scooter can continue to scoot along and enjoy its retirement.

The vehicle and traffic law says that anyone who buys an NYPD vehicle has to remove all the markings and color schemes that resemble a police scooter within 15 days after registering it. The scooter in our story was not registered and not taken on the road. Not yet anyway.

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Member Comments Total Comments: 8
Page 1 of 1
Schrodinger
May 21, 2008 | 12:01 AM

How fast do those scooters go, and many miles per gallon do they get? At the rate things are going, I might have to get me one of those scooters!
John_Deutzman read my blog
May 21, 2008 | 12:07 AM

they actually can hit the 40-50mph range I think. Maybe some cops out there can chime in.

try not to get one with lights and sirens !
cuzzinMarcus
May 21, 2008 | 1:38 PM

What the heck is the NYPD doing with something sissy like a scooter?!? Here in San Francisco the cops have the Suzuki DR400S and the older model DR350S dual purpose bikes. Very durable, can turn on a dime and I should know, I put over 40,000 miles on my old 350 doing riding the Sunday morning ride in Marin and could keep a ZX-11 from passing me all the way down to Muir Woods. Also great for commutes, you have a higher profile. The stock horn is so wussy though. BTW, gas mileage is great. Up to 60 on the freeway, around 50 mpg in the city.

-your cuz Marcus
John_Deutzman read my blog
May 21, 2008 | 3:28 PM

Marcus,

Have you ever been chased ny one? LOL


John
cuzzinMarcus
May 21, 2008 | 4:31 PM

John,

Funniest thing on the Sunday morning ride years ago would be when the riders who had sponsored race gigs would show up on a scooter or one of those Yamaha YZ-50 mini sport bikes. They could ride them skillfully but they were no race bikes. So while they could handle them well in the twisties you kinda left the guys in the dust as the road straightened out. Also they tended to blow up the motors on the ride as they were pushing them beyond any reasonable limit. I remember one of the dirt riders taking a scooter and doing a very nice wheelie on it. Not to totally knock scooters too much as some of the ones with lots of torque apparently are good handlers and the newer ones of the past few years look pretty good. But I like my old DR350S and although I haven't ridden it in years I just got a front brake rotor for it and will probably be riding it in a few months.
mahopacralph
May 21, 2008 | 7:48 PM

Alex is an upstanding citizen.Fox should spend its money on real stories, and not spending good gas money going on wild goose chases.
Oh, I forgot this was Fox.
Schrodinger
May 21, 2008 | 8:47 PM

Here in the downstate area, there is a serious problem because of crimes committed by police impersonators. I'm glad that Fox was proactive in following up on the whereabouts of this particular NYPD scooter. If it had fallen into the hands of the wrong person, I don't even want to imagine the consequences.
John_Deutzman read my blog
May 21, 2008 | 9:42 PM

mahopacralph,

Alex is a good guy and we didn't portray him as a bad guy. This all started because someone was selling this thing in the side of the road and then Alex bought it and decided to sell it again. If everyone was like Alex, the world would be a better place.
This was a quirky story and not intended to be a hard hitting investigation.
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John_Deutzman

John Deutzman, a New York native, has been working as a reporter at Fox 5 News since September of 2001. John has won 12 career Emmys and has received 28 Emmy nominations. He's known for his aggressive and at times humorous style when catching bad guys and exposing scams for the Fox 5 Investigative Unit. John's stories have resulted in arrests, businesses being shut down and dozens victims getting their money back from scam artists. Before moving back to New York, John spent 11 years in Miami, first as a sports reporter but when hurricane Andrew struck, John was thrown into news reporting and evenutally made the full time switch to news. John also had stints in Binghamton,New York and Springfield,Massachusetts
. A native of Smithtown,Long Island, John is an 11th-generation Long Islander. He describes himself as a 50/50 mix of his two grandfathers. One grandfather was a journalist who owned the town paper, the "Smithtown Messenger" and the other was one of the first cops in town who had a reputation for being tough and crazy but fair.

Member Since: 6/1/2006