Arrests.
Stolen Harley found parked outside defendant’s Carbon County home days later, police said
A Summit Hill, Carbon County man is accused of stealing a Harley-Davidson motorcycle from a Franconia Township barn overnight, then returning to the township hours later to steal a trailer and Polaris UTV from a nearby business.
Lee Franklin Walck, 56, of the 300 block of East Hazard Street, is charged with multiple felony counts of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property, as well as associated conspiracy charges, along with a felony count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, according to a police affidavit.
Police said he stole the motorcycle sometime between the evening of Oct. 18 and early morning Oct. 19, 2025, then used his distinctive white Dodge Ram pickup truck — identified by its missing tailgate and a loose white plastic body panel in the bed — to commit additional thefts hours later.
According to the affidavit, police were first called to a property on Delp Road around 7 a.m. Oct. 19, when the owner discovered his 2005 Harley-Davidson Softail Heritage, red and black with no saddlebags, missing from beneath a barn overhang.
Surveillance footage about a quarter-mile away showed a white pickup driving east on Delp Road at 2:40 a.m., followed nine minutes later by the owner’s Harley heading west, tailed closely by the same truck, police said. Automatic license plate readers captured the pickup’s registration, later identified as registered to Walck, traveling through multiple intersections near the crime scene at the same times, according to the complaint.
Later that morning, the stolen Harley was spotted at Main and Broad Streets in Lansdale at 8:50 a.m. and 9 a.m., showing a rider in a black and orange leather jacket looking to his left. Police sent those images to officers in Summit Hill, who said they recognized the rider as Walck, according to the affidavit.
The investigation expanded the next day when police received a report on Oct. 20 about a stolen trailer and Polaris UTV taken from the rear lot of a business on Schoolhouse Road. Surveillance video showed the same tailgate-less white Ram pickup entering the lot at 2:56 a.m. on Oct. 19, followed by the stolen Harley, police said.
Footage depicts the motorcycle being hidden in nearby woods, the Ram returning to hook up the trailer, and both suspects leaving with the trailer and UTV at 4:28 a.m. The Harley is later seen leaving the property around 7:03 a.m., with surveillance capturing the stolen trailer being towed north on Harleysville Pike and later through intersections on Ridge Road and Route 309, police said.
Police traveled to Summit Hill Borough on Oct. 22 to follow up with local officers. As investigators drove past Walck’s residence on East Hazard Street around 12:50 p.m., they allegedly saw the stolen Harley parked outside a neighboring home.
Additional surveillance footage recovered that day reportedly shows a man parking the motorcycle at 8:35 a.m., and two Summit Hill officers immediately identified him as Walck, police said. The motorcycle was recovered and secured by police.
Investigators wrote in the affidavit that the stolen Harley, stolen trailer and stolen Polaris UTV were all connected to the same suspect vehicle, and that identifying characteristics of Walck’s pickup — including missing tailgate, white plastic debris in the truck bed and matching registration — aligned across all camera footage.
Walck is free on $25,000 unsecured bail, set by on-call Magisterial District Judge Edward C. Kropp Sr. A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 10 before Magisterial District Judge Adam T. Katzman.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
