Holy smokes, it has been the most insane few days of our lives - wow.

For some background, our bike, Domino, got stolen in Bari, Italy, the morning we had planned to take the ferry to Albania. We immediately took action and went to the local police, started talking with local business owners, putting out flyers, and we actually visited a local news paper (Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno) to tell them our story. They ended up writing an article on us which really helped spread the news around the city...and eventually, all of Italy. See the article here. The news station that wrote the article found out we were recently married (about 1.5 years) and said we were on our honeymoon. They really jazzed up the story and pressed into us being American, newly wed, world travelers on our honeymoon - we chuckled a bit.

About 3 hours after the article was posted on Wednesday, Austin and I were off to get dinner when we ran into two policemen at the front door of the hostel we were staying at. They had shared that they found Domino and that we needed to go with them to retrieve the moto. I think Austin and I both went into shock but also were SO excited and hugged both of the policemen (they thought it was pretty weird from their stiff reactions, ha). We saw a quick photo of it and the license plate was bent upwards and I had spotted our extra gas can that is red so I knew they didn't steal that. My first reaction was to grab our keys but the police said, "no no, you don't need the keys" so that was quite odd and made us think Domino might not be in riding condition. One of the policemen was named Benny and he was with us each step of the way from the moment of finding Domino until the last encounter with the police. He was our guardian angel helping us along the way, ha!

Sidenote- Throughout our whole interaction, we were using Google Translate or listening to the Italian and trying to understand it using a Spanish base. Austin understand quite a bit of Italian and I can understand some too but Google Translate was our best friend throughout the day.

So, we hopped in the back of the cop car (second time for this trip, lol) and drove about 15 minutes from downtown Bari to a big parking lot of an indoor market. Once we got to the parking lot, we saw Domino and a few other policemen and policewomen around the bike. We jumped out of the cop car beyond stoked and grateful that Domino was there and went to assess the condition. This was us with the bike right after pulling up to the lot, hooray!

It looked like the robbers had shattered our steering lock and ripped out the ignition to hot wire the bike. One of the cops helped us hot wire the bike to start it ourselves and since it was in the evening and we headed to a secure parking lot to park it for the night. Hot wiring a vehicle was way easier than I expected it was...kind of wild to think about and do ourselves, lol. We ended up letting the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno know that we found they bike and they wrote an updated article for us, see it here. We also had a different newspaper company write an article about the situation. Some family I have in Milan, Italy actually sent it over to me after seeing it online, ha! See the link here.

In the photo below, you can see the hole where the ignition key is supposed to go but it was empty and missing. You can also see the free hanging wires which were cut and detached.

The photo below is the evening of recovery before we moved the bike to the secure parking lot:

The next morning, Benny (our guardian angel) picked us up in his personal car and street clothes and we headed back to the parking lot where we left Domino for the night. I think that it was his day off but he wanted to help us each step of the way so that was extremely kind of him! The policemen were so generous too and paid for our parking, then we were off to get the ignition fixed! We drove about 15-20 minutes to a mechanic that has been working on vehicles since he was 15 and he is coming up on 75 this year. It took about 5 minutes for him to rewire the ignition box and screw it in place. The new ignition box came from an old Fiat so we now have an old Fiat key for Domino, ha! The Italian guys LOVED that we have a Fiat key now and showed it to people throughout the day. This is us with the mechanic right before he fixed the ignition:

Once the ignition was all sorted, we headed to the police station since the Chief of Police wanted to meet us. We ended up getting a detailed tour of their command building which was quite interesting to see! We also got to meet (and take a photo with) the woman who found Domino on the cameras, we are so thankful for her eagle eyes!

Other photos form the tour:

Once we were wrapped up with our tour, the Chief of Police was free to meet so we met with him and he presented us with ball caps and some other police gifts. We got to share how grateful we are for their attentive team and for their help finding the bike! Austin was also gifted amazing riding winter gloves from one of the policemen and I was gifted a cozy warm neck buff that has “Polizia Locale” stitched on it. It’s awesome! When our time ended at the police station, we started to head to the bike and saw a cameraman and guy with a microphone approaching us from the outside of the police gate. They asked if they could interview us and we said “sure, why not!”. The guy interviewing us was an absolute hoot!! Here is his show, he was more of a YouTuber instead of formal news stations. He also had written up a snippet article too, see here.

After we wrapped up talking with him, we were off to a motorcycle store to buy a big chain lock and a lock that “screams” if the bike is moved even the slightest bit. After that, we found some yummy treats at a bakery and brought them to the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno to thank them for their help and for writing the initial article. They also printed in the newspaper about it! This is a PDF of the newspaper:

Once we shared our thanks to the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, we were gassed so we headed to lunch. We went to a mom and pop pasta place and had some delicious pasta. When we were at lunch, I got a message from Benny (our guardian angel cop friend) and he asked if we would be open to do a press conference with the Chief of Police and one of the largest news stations in Italy. They wanted to have a snippet on the national news about the story. Austin and I looked at each other and chuckled, “why not!”. Benny then met us at the our lunch spot and escorted us back to the police station for the press conference.

The press conference essentially was the Chief of Police explaining about the story and how the police were able to successfully recover the bike allowing us to continue our world tour. We were then asked a few questions by a reporter that was on speaker phone since she spoke English. We got to share again how grateful we are for the police, the news stations, the local business owners, and motorcycle community. They all helped make noise and get Domino back. After we wrapped up the formal interview, the news station wanted to drive around Bari with us to get some shots with the bike so we drove around Bari with police escorts and gave them some Domino-style footage, haha. In the news clip, they highlight funny quotes, Austin and I died laughing when watching it after the fact. The video of the news is posted at the bottom. My uncle in Milan videoed it and sensed it to us! Thank you, Andrew!

Us shaking hands with the Chief of Police in Bari:

After we finished the “Tour de Bari” with the news reports and the police, we stopped at one more motorcycle shop to grab some spare parts and headed back to the hostel. We were ready to collapse! But first! We found a safe and secure garage for Domino to be parked in for our final night in Bari. Parking was 40€ for 24 hours in case you are wondering why we didn’t park there in the first place. After a few years, parking costs can add up fast! But last night, we were happy to pay any amount to keep Domino safe.

As I type this, it’s our final afternoon in Bari and all day we have been cooped up at our amazing hostel with Domino hidden away in a safe garage. We feel so lucky to have our bike back but are in awe about how kind and generous all of the people have been to us throughout the crazy week.

We got to the point of talking about what we would do if the bike was gone for good and we know that God would have a plan for us but we were honestly so confused and heart broken about this game changing event. Thank you for everyone who joined us in prayer, we appreciate it immensely. God doesn’t always answer prayers the way we want him to (even though this time he did) but we are both confident He is in control and has a plan for our lives and this trip.

We take the ferry to Albania tonight and are so excited to start our Balkan section of the trip!!

Video from the Italian national news, my aunt said 4-5 million people watch each evening, lol: