Dude. Don’t mess with a man’s wheels.
That’s the message a B.C. motorcycle owner wants to send to a neighbour who has repeatedly damaged his bike under cover of night, without ever voicing his complaints about the noise to the biker’s face.
“Stop it. Grow up,” was Rob Supeene’s message to the vandal on Wednesday, in a conversation with CTV Vancouver. Supeene says a vandal has damaged his Harley-Davidson Wide Glide on two occasions, resulting in approximately $10,000 worth of damage.
In the first instance, Supeene woke one morning to find that his motorcycle seat had been slashed and his gas tank scratched up. The vandal also left a poorly-written note: “If this wakes me up again early morning it will get much worse.”
Supeene says he knows his bike can be loud, but he tries to be respectful with it when he’s working on it at home.
“I don’t crack the throttle. I don’t open it up. I’m very cognizant and very aware of my neighbours,” he said.
Supeene installed a security camera after the first incident of vandalism, and it paid off a few weeks later when the vandal returned to dump paint all over the motorcycle. The paint left white splotches all over the motorcycle and the driveway.
“It literally stripped the paint right off the rear fender,” Supeene said.
But, with his security camera in place, Supeene was able to roll back the tape and get a look at the culprit. He says he also followed the paint trail back to the culprit’s home, and has since called the RCMP about the case.
“The first comment that came out of my mouth was, ‘I got you, you S.O.B., I got you,’” he said.
Police have not commented on the case, but a few of Supeene’s neighbours have come out strongly on his side.
“I think it’s terrible,” Ross James said. “I mean, why do people do things like that?”
Neighbour Nathan Valencourt had strong words to describe the vandal.
“‘Arrogant idiot’ really comes to mind,” he said.
Supeene expects his insurance to cover most of the cost of the damage to his bike, but he says he’d rather not have to deal with this problem again.
“Stop,” he said, when asked what he would say to the culprit. “How far are you going to go?”
With files from CTV Vancouver
