Driving an out-of-state motorcycle in Georgia is perfectly legitimate. But one man learned the hard way that riding one while not wearing a helmet is illegal – especially when the motorcycle is stolen.
Eatonton Police Department Officer Rebecca Meeks was running radar on the Eatonton Bypass Saturday morning when a Kawasaki Ninja 250 went speeding past her, according to EPD crime reports. Noticing the driver was not wearing a helmet, Meeks turned on her patrol car’s blue lights and went after the motorcycle, which turned onto Monticello Road and then Roy Jones Road.
“I radioed dispatch that I was in a vehicle pursuit after a motorcycle, and the driver looked back towards me several times,” Meeks wrote in her report.
The driver, later identified as Jeffery Alvis Jr., stopped on Roy Jones Road. As Meeks walked toward him, he reportedly asked why she had pulled him over.
Alvis was immediately handcuffed and told the reason was that he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Alvis presented a Kansas driver’s license and told Meeks he did not know helmets are required in Georgia. The rider’s answers to the officer’s questions seemed to go downhill after that. He reportedly didn’t have a motorcycle-class driver’s license; the tag on the motorcycle wasn’t registered to the motorcycle, and he didn’t have the key to the bike.
“He told me there was no key,” Meeks’ report reveals. “He had alligator clipped it, spray painted it black, and affixed a phone mount where the key would have gone.”
When a check of the motorcycle’s VIN revealed it had been reported stolen out of Kansas, Alvis told Meeks he had “purchased it from someone named Colby for $500.”
The motorcycle was towed to the impound lot, and Alvis was taken to Putnam County Jail.
Meeks notified the Sedgwick County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office that the stolen motorcycle had been recovered.
According to Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell, Alvis lived in the old cotton mill area of northwestern Eatonton.
“And, he has a lengthy, lengthy criminal record,” Cardwell added.
Jeffrey Williams Alvis Jr., 31, of Wichita, Kan., is being held in Putnam County Jail on charges of theft by receiving stolen property in another state (felony), improper or altered tags and registration, no helmet, speeding 76 mph in a 55 mph zone, and driving while license suspended or revoked.