In February of 1967, a 1953 Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle was stolen from a man's backyard in Omaha, Nebraska. More than 45 years later, that same bike was found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at a Los Angeles port.

The bike had been on its way to Yokohama, Japan when authorities from Customs decided to take a closer look, the Orange County Register reported. Upon seeing that bike's vehicle identification number (VIN) matched a bike that was reported stolen way back when, agents seized the bike.

The bike, estimated to be worth around $9,000, was then sent to California Highway Patrol who tracked down the owner, now 72 and still living in Nebraska.

Via the OC Register:
Lou Koven, special agent for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, who was in charge of finding the owner, said the owner was in disbelief and shock when contacted about the motorcycle, which had an estimated value of $9,000. When it was stolen, the bike was worth $300.
"He thought I was scamming him," Koven said. "But then the police contacted him, and then he started believing."

Los Angeles Weekly reports that this type of find isn't as rare as one might think. Todd C. Owen, CBP director of field operations in Los Angeles, said that CBP agents have recently intercepted two other vehicles stolen at least 20 years ago.

Via L.A. Weekly:
"CBP officers and their law enforcement counterparts check many outbound vehicles on a regular basis. Their success in recovering stolen vehicles is remarkable. A few have nice stories like this one.
Omaha.com spoke with the bike's owner, Donald R. Devault, who explained that the bike used to look a lot different. "Back then it was baby blue and it looked like a little toy chopper," he said.

He told the paper that he's looking forward to the reunion. “I’m going to ask her, ‘Where have you been?’ I bet there’s a lot stories she could tell me,” he told Omaha.com. “I wish she could talk because a lot’s happened in 46 years.”. www.http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/motorcycle-stolen-in-1967-is-found-in-2013-232032044.html?.tsrc=yahoo

Na wa o,see comments-237 comments

Fredo, ZooDoo; The one trying to export the bike isn't very likely to have any relation to whoever stole it. It looks like it has been restored at least to some extent. The person exporting it probably didn't know it was stolen but they will loose any investment in it and it will be returned to the rightful owner. I have known a couple of people who bought bare frames for cars from wrecking yards and spent a fortune building custom cars from the frame up. Those cars were seized in export and returned to the owner of the original frame. They didn't face any criminal charges but they could have lost $100k in all the custom work. These were companies who checked the numbers and ran them before starting working on the cars. They got lucky in that the original owners agreed to legally sell the frames to them for reasonable amounts. But they could have just as easily just smiled and said "Nice car" and kept them. The builder would have no claim to all the work or parts they put into the build.
Borsia, 1 hr ago

Cool, better late then never. Hopefully his health is still good that he can take it out for a few rides.
Alfred, 4 hrs ago

Nice bike. I used to ride a 1958 Triumph Bonneville chopper way back when.
J, 5 hrs ago

In the computer age they actually entered the VINs from thefts in 1967 to the database? Amazing.
From Da Bronx, 3 hrs ago

Glad to see justice was served here. Got'a kinda feel bad for whoever spent the cash to fix it up this nice if they did not know it was stolen property. If they did know, not only am I glad to see the original owner get it back, but they should chop the thieves hands off!!
Dale, 4 hrs ago
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Lmao

And Nigeria is here changing number plates all the time without proper record

God bless America.

computerization

sincerely!