A Kansas man is on a mission to find the owner of a lost motorcycle vest.

“I just know that if I were to lose mine, I would just hope that someone would go through the trouble to try to return it to me because of what mine means to me,” said Roger Kraatz.

Kraatz is a member of the American Legion Riders Post 174.

“I just love to ride, get the wind through my hair per say. It’s relaxing. It’s just out there by yourself, enjoying mother nature,” he said.

In September of 2017, a friend of his found a motorcycle vest in the ditch along I-135 between Salina and Lindsborg.

“They gave it to me because they know I ride, and they know what my vest means to me, and I would do the best I could to try to get it back to its original owner,” Kraatz said.

Since then, Kraatz has done his best to locate the owner.

“I just started putting it on Facebook, 20, 30 different buy, sell, trade groups, and then I started expanding it, following the patches and going to their group pages and messaging them and trying, trying to just find its original owner,” he explained.

Kraatz said he has put a photo of the vest with his contact information in about 75 Facebook groups.

“People just keep sharing it and keep tagging other riders trying to find its original owner, but it’s just nobody has stepped forward yet,” Kraatz said.

Kraatz said each rider’s vest is unique to them. He said the patches tell the motorcyclist’s story.

“Somebody takes the time to pick something out and get it sewn on to a quality leather vest, it obviously means something to them,” he said. “I have never talked to a rider or a biker that would be OK with losing their vest, so I just try to do the right thing and get it back to the person.”

While he has not had any luck just yet, Kraatz said he does not plan to stop searching for the owner.

“I don’t give up on things too easy especially when it’s something I want to accomplish,” he said.

The vest is a size xs with about seven patches on the back. If you believe you are the owner or know who the owner is, contact Roger Kraatz on Facebook.