South Bend’s Studebaker National Museum is still hoping someone will come forward with video of a riderless motorcycle crashing through its front window recently.
With South Bend police encouraging homes and businesses to tie their security and doorbell cams into the city’s public surveillance network, it might seem odd that no one has come forward with footage of the June 29 incident. That’s when police say two independent witnesses saw a motorcycle with no one riding it move west on Jefferson Street, cross Chapin Street, and drive through the museum’s Bullet Nose Gallery display window.
One might also wonder how a museum holding such valuable items wouldn’t have video of the crash.
Museum Executive Director Pat Slebonick explains.
“The museum actually does have a pretty robust security system of course to protect the collection, which includes video cameras," Slebonick says. "We just did not have one that had a good angle of a motorcycle coming down the street to capture this incident. And there have been a few people on social media who say that they have video of it on their Ring doorbell, and I know that they were going to be working with the police department to get that, and we don’t have that in our possession yet.”
But South Bend police spokeswoman Ashley O’Chap says police have not received any such videos. Police have impounded the motorcycle and identified the Elkhart man it’s registered to, but O’Chap Wednesday said police have not interviewed him.
