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Angela Griffin had her 2012 Aprilia V4 stolen two days before Christmas.
A single mother of four has ended 2020 wishing she could take a break.
Taupō’s Angela Griffin was two days away from Christmas Day when her beloved 2012 Aprilia V4 motorcycle, purchased in early December, was stolen from a busy Hamilton street.
It was his most prized possession. Griffin had only taken it out twice before, but says he spent “a good couple of years” saving it.
The blow also comes after some pretty tough years.
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Griffin’s partner Dave died in 2011 of a heart attack. Three weeks later, Griffin discovered that she was pregnant with her now youngest child.
“We haven’t had a good run,” Griffin said. Stuff.
Her youngest son, now eight years old, was diagnosed with cancer six years ago and had to undergo a liver transplant and her 15-year-old daughter has epilepsy.
Griffin herself suffers from the side effects of an old leg injury and now needs a cane to walk.
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Griffin’s Aprilia V4 gave him an exhaust.
And the only place Griffin feels herself and can clear her mind is on the back of her yellow Aprilla motorcycle.
“It is the only place where I can do something normal. I am a single mother and I am in ACC, ”she said.
“My children are reaching that age where I can go out and be an adult.
“I have been alone for so long.
“I am emotionally drained. It’s my only good thing that I’ve been saving for so long. It’s like it’s not meant to be and it hurts, ”Griffin said through tears.
The bike cost Griffin $ 10,000, but he was only able to see the countryside twice: Coromandel and Lake Taupō.
On December 23, when Griffen got on his bike and headed to Hamilton’s motorcycle shop, NTB Racing, everything changed.
“I knew if I could get it there, I could take it home.”
Just over a mile from the store on Te Rapa Rd, Griffin’s bike broke down at the corner of Victoria St and MacDiarmid Rd.
Unable to walk with the bike and his cane, Griffin “parked it out of the way” and walked around looking for the parts he needed.
When he returned two and a half hours later at 3.30 pm, his bike was missing.
At first he thought someone had moved it.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
“Two days before Christmas is little … at the end of the day, all I want is to get back.
“I am devastated.”
The incident has been reported to the police and Sheriff Warrick Pearson is pushing hard for the bike to be returned.
Pearson said police are aware that it broke down and was left at the corner of Victoria and MacDiarmid in Hamilton.
“The steering wasn’t locked, so it was able to get out of the way,” Pearson said.
“I have CCTV footage from city cameras of a man and a woman pushing the bike south down Victoria St and then into the Edgecumbe St. area.
“The bike needs a microchipped key to start it, so it’s basically useless to anyone else.
“There aren’t many Aprilias around, so even selling parts would be problematic for violators.
“It would be a fantastic Christmas for this lady if we could return this bike to her.”
The bicycle was not insured.
Call the Hamilton Police at 07-858-6200 and the quote file number is 201223/1132 if you have information on Griffin’s bike.
