Friend's motorcycle was stolen. Police ask weird question.

Lail

Ok, so on Monday night/Tuesday morning my friends motorcycle was stolen from his driveway. When he was leaving for work he noticed it was gone and called the cops. The cops came and asked him the normal questions, but apparently were very interested in how much gas was in the tank. I guess they asked him a couple times. He mentioned it to me, thinking it was weird. I for the life of my can't think of why they would care.

My first thought was that a full tank would increase the value of the stolen property, but that's a whole $12? on a bike worth a few thousand.

I then thought maybe because if the tank was almost empty, the thief would have to visit a gas station that was close by and fill up. The cops could ask nearby stations for their security tapes and look for the bike. But really, that's a lot of work and unless the bike is used in a murder I doubt they care. (that and the bike was probably just loaded onto a truck)

Anyway, am I missing something super obvious? Why would the police care about how much gas was in the tank?

THEPAIN73

I think you might be right on the gas station thing.

They are just trying to find a lead.

Arminas

How about so they can gauge how far a thief might be able to drive away in it? Or you can guess at your search radius by calculating the bike's MPG and the amount of gas left in it. With that, the police can let the proper authorities & dealerships & shops to look for a bike matching that description. Otherwise it'd be stupid to tell the entire state/country that a bike fitting said description is missing. Limiting the search area would help.

but if the thief loads the bike into a truck and drives off? Welp! Then I have no idea.

Everywhereasign

Although they aren't going to go around asking all the stations to pull their tapes, a-la CSI. They might swing by and ask the attendant, "Hey, did a guy fill up this bike early x morning?" If he says yes, they've got a good lead. It's easy for them to do, and could result in a description of the person that took the bike.

Seems like they're being rather efficient and thorough.