Re-cycled bikes! High-end motorcycles nabbed in international theft ring bust vanish from NYPD lot

FIRST, COPS announced they’d captured some stolen motorcycles — then, someone stole them back.

Sources said seven high-performance bikes seized during a highly touted bust of an international theft ring were, embarrasingly, swiped from a police yard.

The cycles were discovered missing Aug. 24 at the NYPD’s Auto Crime and Narcotics Division lot on Abbot St., the sources said.

The motorcycles were part of a haul of at least 50 that were collected during a 17-month probe by the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Investigators believe the bikes were taken out of a truck in the fenced lot, then rolled out because the batteries had been removed, making it impossible to start the engines, sources said.

The lot, which is shared by the NYPD and another business, is not guarded and doesn’t have surveillance cameras inside the facility, sources said.

A camera outside the lot recorded images of a van parked nearby over the weekend, but investigators were still trying to determine if it was part of the theft, sources said.

Because the bikes disappeared from NYPD custody, the department's Internal Affairs Bureau is looking into the ripoff to see whether it was an inside job, sources said.

The motorcycles were taken to the lot shortly after city investigators called a glitzy press conference in July to hail the arrest of 33 people in connection with the international motorcycle theft ring.

Prosecutors said at the time that the runners, or “procurers,” would use stolen minivans to grab Ducati, Kawasaki and Husqvarna motorcycles parked on streets across the five boroughs.

A team of undercover officers who posed as buyers also wiretapped conversations between the ring’s runners and sellers.

The investigation also netted at least 10 guns.

Some defense lawyers said the loss of evidence could destroy efforts to prosecute the ring.

“There goes the case,” said Anne Beane Rudman, a lawyer involved. “The defense counsel has the right to inspect any evidence to determine the value of the item. This is a major problem for the police.”

But Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA, said prosecutors aren’t sweating the theft, since the case was already made with wiretaps, informants and surveillance cameras.

“We are proceeding fully with the cases against all the defendants,” Duggan said.

By Janon Fisher AND Joe Kemp / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS