SYO237
SyTy Registry
Sucks to have to tell this story. A few know some minor details....and like promised, Im posting the entire story. Its long, so reader beware.
The names and locations I am about to post (aside from myself) have been changed to protect those who where involved and were innocent in the matters.
Around 2 1/2 years ago while still at AZ, I stumbled onto Syclone #226 that had been stuffed in a small shed in the back of a family dealership, a few miles from my parents. Forgotten for years, neglected, and needed to go into the right hands.
I convinced the dealer to pull the truck out and clean it up, as I might be able to help sell it. Of course, seeing my Syclone and Typhoon boosted their enthusiam and out of the shed it came and got cleaned up.
Decent truck... 78k, full working ty mirrors, needed paint but not major, decent interior...overall a fair truck for someone willing to put a few thousand into it and some TLC.
The dealer knew what the Syclone was...and like almost every dealer, they priced high, with no worries about a fast sale.... it could sit as long as it needed until the right person came along.
And there it sat for a good 2 1/2 years.
Occasionally, Id drop by, talked to the dealer about people coming by wanting the truck... all talkers, no takers... of course, my info was left with the truck for its future owner.
Finally, they started slowly dropping the price after multiple times of telling them it would not sell at their asking price. The truck sat at the front of the dealer exposed to all the FL sun and weather.... hell, it even went through the 2004 hurricane season.
Some time passed and I recently started recieving emails from a person who was going to finance the truck and buy it.... of course, they recieved my information to call, and I proceeded to go into detail about the truck and of course offer my help tuning and cleaning the truck up if he bought.
The person kept in touch, letting me know the timeframe to get the truck.
Cool....finally, the truck is going to be taken care of and go to someone who will put the time into it.
A few weeks ago, I recieve a phonecall from a highschool friend who works on vehicles from around town at his house. We'll call him "Bob".
Bob tells me that he just got a Sonoma with a Sy motor implant, along with seats, console and misc parts. Bob was to wire up the harness and get it running.
Cool... I asked where the Syclone was.... Bob told me that the owner of the Sonoma..... we'll call him "Frank"....said he rolled it and basically took out the motor and interior parts and threw them into the Sonoma. The Syclone was trashed Frank said.
Of course, Bob knowning the SyTys and how pricey and how hard it is to find parts asked about the Syclone and if he could get parts of it for himself and of couse for me. Frank didnt much answer him on this question... Frank came off very shady.
I offered Bob my help in any questions that came up while he worked on it.
About 2 weeks or so had passed since I talked to Bob last about some TPS and IAC issues.
Online one night, I recieved an IM from the potential buyer of #226. He was pissed and asked if I had heard. Heard what? The Syclone was stolen from the dealer...they cut the fence and took off with the truck about 2 weeks ago.
Holy shit. It instantly all connected and made sense.
I called up Bob and asked him to go look at the motor and started naming off key pieces to look at as I looked at prior pictures I took of #226 months before. Note, I hadnt seen the Sonoma at this point.
Everything I told him to look at on the motor was a dead match for Sy #226.... the seats which had matching wear on the side cushions, the worn down shifter with a hole in it, right down to the entire exhaust that had some weld spatter with silver paint covering it on the tips that now was under the Sonoma. I even had another person who knew SyTys to go look at the Sonoma and confirm.
Syclone #226 had been stolen and hacked up and thrown into a 1998 Sonoma.
Bob, now aware why Frank is so shady and has a truck with stolen parts in it, is now in the middle of what could be grand theft auto. He had no idea, neither did I. Hes now worried and wants to stay quiet about it until he can get the truck done, get paid, and the Sonoma gone from his house.
(Hey, Bob has got to pay bills too, and the money owed was enough to put up a big deal about getting it)
Of course, I kept my mouth shut, but went to a police officer who delt with cars on a daily basis, was a car enthusiast himself, and would understand the situation.
The officer... we'll call him "Officer Duke" was very helpful in making contact with one of his auto theft detectives and giving notice about the situation and how I know about the stolen Syclone, and where the parts are.
Meanwhile, Officer Duke advised me to get as much information as possible on the owner of the Sonoma, the whereabouts of the Syclone, and get the VIN off the motor. Bob was safe, and more than likely wouldnt get charged or be a part of anything, since he couldnt have known about the theft... he would just be questioned a bunch.
The Sonoma came back clean on carfax, and I was able to get some personal info on Frank.... minimal, but some info.
Bob helped out and gave me all the infomation he could. From talking with Frank, the Syclone had been cut in half and the bed was now being used as a trailer.
Now, this brought up a red flag with Bob and I. Frank mentioned the truck was in a roll over. Yet, the bed was in good enough condition to be used as a trailer?
Meanwhile, Bob had to do the task of trying to get the VIN off the motor....which isnt an easy thing to do on a SyTy.....try it on a late model sonoma where the motor sits farther back into the fire wall.
After some fighting and taking off the fender welll, Bob was able to get in and see where the VIN is stamped.
Its blank. It hasnt been ground down either. It does show machine markings, but looks to be stock...as if the motor came that way.
This is not good. No VIN, no case....simple as that. No matter how obvious it was that the motor was out of the Syclone, without a VIN there is nothing that can be done. You could etch STOLEN MOTOR OUT OF SYCLONE #226 on the intake if you wanted... without a VIN, you cant prove anything.
Pictures are taken of the Sonoma to use a reference of the pictures I took of #226 months prior to the theft to match the parts.
Im in constant contact with Officer Duke and the auto theft detective.
Ok... well, the VIN is located in 2 other spots... the frame and inside the glove box. Of course, the glove box is a bit obvoius, and if you dont know where to look on the frame, you'd never find it.
So... Bob keeps bugging Frank until he says where the truck is. Finally Bob convinces Frank that he has a friend (me) who wants to come check out the Syclone for any parts left. Frank agrees it would be OK. Frank has no idea that me and Bob know whats up...nor has Frank ever met me or seen me before.
A week passes, I let Officer Duke know that I will be getting the location on the Syclone. All our efforts are getting ready to pay off.....so I think.
Bob calls Frank to set up a time to go see whats left of the Syclone. To late. Frank has supposidly piled up what was left, threw it into the now syclone trailer bed, and was hauling over to a metal scrap yard to be sliced up and recycled. What a perfect way to get rid of a stolen truck.
That means another part where the VIN is located is gone.
I have put out a notice with junkyards in the area to be on the lookout for a Syclone coming in. Whether I hear something back, is probably slim to none... junkyards dont really care about auto theft...they just see that metal = money.
Unforetunately, Bob hasnt seen the syclone bed trailer and has no idea the whereabouts. Frank is very short on infomation and disregards questions asked.
Police cant do anything. Again, without VIN matching, theres really nothing to link the Syclone to the Sonoma... and police are not about to go chase about for a syclone bed trailer. Officer Duke cant help in any matter and is disappointed that it ended like this. He was setting it up so that if an arrest was made, the people who helped would recieve a money reward from Crimeline.
I saw the Sonoma for myself this past weekend. Its hard to look at something right in front of you that you know is stolen, but cant do anything about.
And to finally dig the knife deeper, the Sonoma just left Bob's house tonight back into the hands of Frank. Time had ran out to get the key information and Bob could no longer hold onto the truck and was paid what was owed for doing the work.
The Sonoma is supposidly already being sold to someone else.
Which means, no one can be linked and charged to the theft of Syclone #226, unless by some means the remaining Syclone still exists, or I come across the syclone bed trailer, which is doubtful.
I did my best in helping catch the person(s) who had a hand in stealing #226, cutting it up and putting the parts into the Sonoma. Pisses me off to see a nice decent working truck stolen for the sole purpose of cutting it up to drop into a POS Sonoma...and getting away with it.
I have added #226 to the Official SyTy Database and label it as stolen and unrecoverable.
Many thanks to Bob, Officer Duke and the person who ran the carfaxes for me and the person who helped confirm it was stolen pieces in the sonoma
(leaving anonymous for protection).
As of right now, I wont be posting pictures due to the slight chance that something can still be done.
Im fortunate that Officer Duke is making sure to exhaust all potential ways that can be done to link the theft to the Sonoma.
The names and locations I am about to post (aside from myself) have been changed to protect those who where involved and were innocent in the matters.
Around 2 1/2 years ago while still at AZ, I stumbled onto Syclone #226 that had been stuffed in a small shed in the back of a family dealership, a few miles from my parents. Forgotten for years, neglected, and needed to go into the right hands.
I convinced the dealer to pull the truck out and clean it up, as I might be able to help sell it. Of course, seeing my Syclone and Typhoon boosted their enthusiam and out of the shed it came and got cleaned up.
Decent truck... 78k, full working ty mirrors, needed paint but not major, decent interior...overall a fair truck for someone willing to put a few thousand into it and some TLC.
The dealer knew what the Syclone was...and like almost every dealer, they priced high, with no worries about a fast sale.... it could sit as long as it needed until the right person came along.
And there it sat for a good 2 1/2 years.
Occasionally, Id drop by, talked to the dealer about people coming by wanting the truck... all talkers, no takers... of course, my info was left with the truck for its future owner.
Finally, they started slowly dropping the price after multiple times of telling them it would not sell at their asking price. The truck sat at the front of the dealer exposed to all the FL sun and weather.... hell, it even went through the 2004 hurricane season.
Some time passed and I recently started recieving emails from a person who was going to finance the truck and buy it.... of course, they recieved my information to call, and I proceeded to go into detail about the truck and of course offer my help tuning and cleaning the truck up if he bought.
The person kept in touch, letting me know the timeframe to get the truck.
Cool....finally, the truck is going to be taken care of and go to someone who will put the time into it.
A few weeks ago, I recieve a phonecall from a highschool friend who works on vehicles from around town at his house. We'll call him "Bob".
Bob tells me that he just got a Sonoma with a Sy motor implant, along with seats, console and misc parts. Bob was to wire up the harness and get it running.
Cool... I asked where the Syclone was.... Bob told me that the owner of the Sonoma..... we'll call him "Frank"....said he rolled it and basically took out the motor and interior parts and threw them into the Sonoma. The Syclone was trashed Frank said.
Of course, Bob knowning the SyTys and how pricey and how hard it is to find parts asked about the Syclone and if he could get parts of it for himself and of couse for me. Frank didnt much answer him on this question... Frank came off very shady.
I offered Bob my help in any questions that came up while he worked on it.
About 2 weeks or so had passed since I talked to Bob last about some TPS and IAC issues.
Online one night, I recieved an IM from the potential buyer of #226. He was pissed and asked if I had heard. Heard what? The Syclone was stolen from the dealer...they cut the fence and took off with the truck about 2 weeks ago.
Holy shit. It instantly all connected and made sense.
I called up Bob and asked him to go look at the motor and started naming off key pieces to look at as I looked at prior pictures I took of #226 months before. Note, I hadnt seen the Sonoma at this point.
Everything I told him to look at on the motor was a dead match for Sy #226.... the seats which had matching wear on the side cushions, the worn down shifter with a hole in it, right down to the entire exhaust that had some weld spatter with silver paint covering it on the tips that now was under the Sonoma. I even had another person who knew SyTys to go look at the Sonoma and confirm.
Syclone #226 had been stolen and hacked up and thrown into a 1998 Sonoma.
Bob, now aware why Frank is so shady and has a truck with stolen parts in it, is now in the middle of what could be grand theft auto. He had no idea, neither did I. Hes now worried and wants to stay quiet about it until he can get the truck done, get paid, and the Sonoma gone from his house.
(Hey, Bob has got to pay bills too, and the money owed was enough to put up a big deal about getting it)
Of course, I kept my mouth shut, but went to a police officer who delt with cars on a daily basis, was a car enthusiast himself, and would understand the situation.
The officer... we'll call him "Officer Duke" was very helpful in making contact with one of his auto theft detectives and giving notice about the situation and how I know about the stolen Syclone, and where the parts are.
Meanwhile, Officer Duke advised me to get as much information as possible on the owner of the Sonoma, the whereabouts of the Syclone, and get the VIN off the motor. Bob was safe, and more than likely wouldnt get charged or be a part of anything, since he couldnt have known about the theft... he would just be questioned a bunch.
The Sonoma came back clean on carfax, and I was able to get some personal info on Frank.... minimal, but some info.
Bob helped out and gave me all the infomation he could. From talking with Frank, the Syclone had been cut in half and the bed was now being used as a trailer.
Now, this brought up a red flag with Bob and I. Frank mentioned the truck was in a roll over. Yet, the bed was in good enough condition to be used as a trailer?
Meanwhile, Bob had to do the task of trying to get the VIN off the motor....which isnt an easy thing to do on a SyTy.....try it on a late model sonoma where the motor sits farther back into the fire wall.
After some fighting and taking off the fender welll, Bob was able to get in and see where the VIN is stamped.
Its blank. It hasnt been ground down either. It does show machine markings, but looks to be stock...as if the motor came that way.
This is not good. No VIN, no case....simple as that. No matter how obvious it was that the motor was out of the Syclone, without a VIN there is nothing that can be done. You could etch STOLEN MOTOR OUT OF SYCLONE #226 on the intake if you wanted... without a VIN, you cant prove anything.
Pictures are taken of the Sonoma to use a reference of the pictures I took of #226 months prior to the theft to match the parts.
Im in constant contact with Officer Duke and the auto theft detective.
Ok... well, the VIN is located in 2 other spots... the frame and inside the glove box. Of course, the glove box is a bit obvoius, and if you dont know where to look on the frame, you'd never find it.
So... Bob keeps bugging Frank until he says where the truck is. Finally Bob convinces Frank that he has a friend (me) who wants to come check out the Syclone for any parts left. Frank agrees it would be OK. Frank has no idea that me and Bob know whats up...nor has Frank ever met me or seen me before.
A week passes, I let Officer Duke know that I will be getting the location on the Syclone. All our efforts are getting ready to pay off.....so I think.
Bob calls Frank to set up a time to go see whats left of the Syclone. To late. Frank has supposidly piled up what was left, threw it into the now syclone trailer bed, and was hauling over to a metal scrap yard to be sliced up and recycled. What a perfect way to get rid of a stolen truck.
That means another part where the VIN is located is gone.
I have put out a notice with junkyards in the area to be on the lookout for a Syclone coming in. Whether I hear something back, is probably slim to none... junkyards dont really care about auto theft...they just see that metal = money.
Unforetunately, Bob hasnt seen the syclone bed trailer and has no idea the whereabouts. Frank is very short on infomation and disregards questions asked.
Police cant do anything. Again, without VIN matching, theres really nothing to link the Syclone to the Sonoma... and police are not about to go chase about for a syclone bed trailer. Officer Duke cant help in any matter and is disappointed that it ended like this. He was setting it up so that if an arrest was made, the people who helped would recieve a money reward from Crimeline.
I saw the Sonoma for myself this past weekend. Its hard to look at something right in front of you that you know is stolen, but cant do anything about.
And to finally dig the knife deeper, the Sonoma just left Bob's house tonight back into the hands of Frank. Time had ran out to get the key information and Bob could no longer hold onto the truck and was paid what was owed for doing the work.
The Sonoma is supposidly already being sold to someone else.
Which means, no one can be linked and charged to the theft of Syclone #226, unless by some means the remaining Syclone still exists, or I come across the syclone bed trailer, which is doubtful.
I did my best in helping catch the person(s) who had a hand in stealing #226, cutting it up and putting the parts into the Sonoma. Pisses me off to see a nice decent working truck stolen for the sole purpose of cutting it up to drop into a POS Sonoma...and getting away with it.
I have added #226 to the Official SyTy Database and label it as stolen and unrecoverable.
Many thanks to Bob, Officer Duke and the person who ran the carfaxes for me and the person who helped confirm it was stolen pieces in the sonoma
(leaving anonymous for protection).
As of right now, I wont be posting pictures due to the slight chance that something can still be done.
Im fortunate that Officer Duke is making sure to exhaust all potential ways that can be done to link the theft to the Sonoma.
