Kentucky Wounded Marine's Purple Heart Harley Stolen

Veteran robbed of custom Purple Heart motorcycle in Florence
Man heard engine start, saw person take off on bike
WLWT News
By Emily Wood
Mar 12, 2016

This is the ride he survived in Afghanistan

FLORENCE, Ky. —A local Purple Heart recipient is at a loss without his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Marine Combat Veteran Brandon Bailey's custom-painted Purple Heart Harley was stolen from his mother's driveway in Florence Sunday evening.

Bailey said he was at his mother's house with his wife for dinner and parked his bike parallel to the garage.

"I've been riding motorcycles since I was just a little guy," Bailey said.

Bailey enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1998 and was in Afghanistan in 2009 when his unit was hit by an IED. The Humvee he was in landed on top of him, crushing his pelvis, breaking both hips and his back.

His doctors told him he would never walk again, but Bailey was determined to not only defy their orders but get back on his bike.

Dealing with the pain from his injuries, more than 20 surgeries and PTSD, riding his bike became an escape from it all.

"That's my release. You have guys that go to war and they do things a human shouldn't do and they see things humans shouldn't see, so you need that release or you are going to explode or implode," Bailey said. "I fought cowards all over the world and then I come here and someone comes and takes a possession of mine."
read more here