Charity Motorcycle Missing, Texas Popcorn Shop Owner Gone, Too

September 9, 2014

A custom-built motorcycle is missing, along with $160,000 paid by investors and those who bought chances to win the bike in a raffle proposed by an Amarillo, Texas, popcorn shop owner who also has vanished.

Dave Goodwin Jr. commissioned “American Chopper” reality show star Paul Teutel Sr. to custom build the bike, incorporating themes of Teutel’s Orange County Choppers, Goodwin’s popcorn shop and the military.

The bike was the centerpiece for an “American Chopper” episode aired in November, and the finished product was displayed at a Texas Rangers baseball game in Arlington last September.

Now, the Amarillo Globe-News reports the May 31 motorcycle raffle to benefit veterans never occurred, the state closed Goodwin’s popcorn store over $44,000 in unpaid state taxes, and Goodwin appears to have left the city.

In response to the newspaper’s inquiries to Goodwin’s Facebook page, the former owner of Goody’s World Famous Popcorn in Amarillo declined to comment and referred questions to his Amarillo attorney, Walter Wolfram. He then changed his privacy settings to block further messages.

Wolfram said he had not heard from Goodwin “in quite some time” and added that invoices he had mailed to Goodwin were returned by the U.S. Postal Service as having been sent to an incorrect address.

The motorcycle’s last known location was a residence in Crown Point, Indiana, Wolfram said. Tax records checked by the Globe-News showed the residence is owned by Dave Goodwin’s parents. Goodwin’s father has been in a federal prison since April 2013 for Medicaid fraud. A woman answering an Indiana telephone listed to Dave Goodwin said he was not available, and a recording on Goodwin’s cellphone said he wasn’t taking calls, the Globe-News reported.

The $160,000 needed to pay for the motorcycle came from two investors and the Kansas-based American Fallen Warriors Memorial Foundation. The missed May 31 raffle is under investigation by agencies ranging from the Amarillo Police Department to the FBI, Potter County Attorney Scott Brumley said.

In a letter to foundation attorney Greg Lam, Wolfram said about $17,000 in raffle tickets had been sold. Lam has suggested in letters that Teutel’s custom motorcycle business, Orange County Choppers, have no further involvement with Goodwin fundraisers until Goodwin repays the investors and makes good on the raffle. Lam also has filed complaints with the Texas and Kansas attorneys general.

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