Common thief takes rare bike leaving student without ride

A rare Ducati motorbike gifted to the Hawke's Bay owner so she could get to her nursing course was stolen from the mechanics before she even had a chance to ride it.

Napier woman Jacki Seaward was given the red Ducati 400ss Sport as a gift from friends to help her save on travel costs while studying nursing at EIT.

"Some friends helped me buy a motorbike because I am a student doing my nursing degree and petrol prices and running a car is pretty expensive," Ms Seaward said.

"My friend even gave me some riding gear and I saved up for a helmet and now I have got nothing to ride."

The 41-year-old enjoyed riding motorbikes as a teen and was looking forward to the bike being repaired and getting back on the road.

"I just wanted to get it checked and make sure it was safe, so I took it to the mechanics and left it there for a few weeks so I could pay the bill," she said.

"When they gave me a call on Monday I thought it was to come and pick it up, but they had been broken into and mine was one of the ones they took."

A Bay Motorcycles spokesman said the Taradale store was broken into overnight Sunday, and two bikes were taken.

"We are just gutted for Jacki," he said. "It was stolen from our shop and if anyone knows anything it would be awesome to let police know something about it."

The other bike was a Suzuki 500 farm quad. The thefts were reported to police that morning, and were gaining a lot of public feedback on the Hawke's Bay Police Facebook page.

Eastern Police Region communications manager Kris McGehan said police hoped the social media exposure would help locate the Ducati.

"So far we haven't been able to identify who has taken the bike, but you can see from the interest that people are outraged by the fact and we hope that that interest might garner some information about who might have stolen that bike," Mrs McGehan said.

Three people had been arrested as a direct result of local police joining Facebook last month.

"We are getting a lot of interest from the public about it," she said. "These people have been identified and arrested through information people have supplied through Facebook."

It was also a way for police to connect with the public and get information into the community.

If you have information, call police on (06) 831 0700 or Crime Stoppers 0800 555 111