Police Reunite Man With Kawasaki Dirt Bike 27 Years After It Was Stolen

Faith: restored.

byChris Tsui|
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You know the waves of nostalgia you get when you rummage through your parents' attic and rediscover a bunch of old childhood toys and projects you thought were long gone? Well, one man just got an unexpected visit from a relic from his teenage years thanks to the work of Hartford Police in Connecticut.

Way back in October of 1992, a 17-year-old Waterbury boy had his 1990 Kawasaki KX125-H dirt bike stolen. According to FOX 61, it was swiped when the boy was taken away to presumably get medical attention after he broke his arm riding it. More than 27 years later, however, the former Kawasaki owner has finally been reunited with his old dirt bike.

According to police, the bike was seized after an officer spotted it "tearing through" Bushnell Park in Hartford, CT—likely by someone taking advantage of the park's newfound emptiness brought on by the state's current stay-at-home orders. Authorities were able to trace the bike back to the October 1992 Waterbury police report using manufacturer records kept by the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the National Crime Information Center. The method is helpful when VINs are scratched off. Apparently, dozens of stolen items are returned to their rightful owners this way every year. 

The Connecticut man was 17 when his KX125 was stolen which, assuming he isn't in possession of any John DeLorean-built time machines or mystical anti-aging elixirs, would currently put him in his mid-40s. He's presumably moved on to bigger, more potent machines since then and it's also pretty safe to assume that the stolen Kawasaki isn't quite in the same condition as it was in 1992, but climbing onto and taking that bright green toy out for a ride for the first time in almost 30 years has gotta feel sweet.

Just when we thought all hope was lost, this happens and our faith in humanity—and "the system"— is restored.

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