Uptown man sues man he believes stole motorcycle and wins, but hasn't collected a dime
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago man's motorcycle was stolen, and he says police wouldn't take his case.
So as CBS 2's Marissa Perlman reported Tuesday, Avi Emanuel became his own investigator – and tracked down the man believed to be the thief on social media. He took that man to court – and won.
Sort of.
We first introduced you to Emanuel in September 2020. Video from 2019 shows him on his 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, which was valued at $10,000.
"It's pretty exhilarating," Emanuel. "It goes like zero to 60 in three seconds."
Emanuel said the motorcycle was stolen from the private garage in his Uptown neighborhood apartment building in April 2020. He reported the bike stolen, but after no action from police, he and a friend started doing their own detective work.
"We kind of figured that eventually, some of the parts would might up on Facebook groups or Craigslist or who knows what," Emanuel said.
And they did. Emanuel tracked down his bike – which was being sold piece by piece on social media by a "Don Miller." The seller even posted videos of himself riding the bike on Snapchat.
With still no help from police, Emanuel – a lawyer – filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Miller.
Emanuel said Miller never admitted to stealing the motorcycle. A judge ordered Miller to provide all his social media information in court, but Miller refused – claiming all his accounts were hacked and deleted.
"Clearly, the evidence of all his criminal activity is on those accounts," said Emanuel.
Without the social media evidence, a judge was never able to find Miller guilty of stealing his bike. But Emanuel did win a default hearing – a judge ordered him more than $15,000 in damages.
But Emanuel hasn't seen a dime. The issue is that Miller has no assets.
"If he has nothing, he truly has nothing he's not hiding anything, he has no real estate - that means the judgment is a piece of paper and it's not worth anything," said CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller.
Miller said if the guilty party has no assets, Emanuel may never get paid for his efforts.
So what's the point? Emanuel points to principle.
"He's going to keep doing this unless somebody does something to try to stop him," Emanuel said.
Experts say if Donald Miller does ever come into assets – even years from now – he would be required to pay up. But if Miller files for bankruptcy, his case would be completely wiped from circuit court and Emanuel would not see a dime.
We have made multiple attempts to reach Donald Miller and his attorney for comment on the case and have not heard back.
