Spanish language Q&A Forum

A su vecino le robaron la moto el otro día.

(Le) robaron la moto el otro día a su vecino.

They stole his neighbour's bike the other day.

My brain wants to translate this as: 

The other day they stole the bike for his neighbor.   (su=his, her, your, its, their)

My point being that I think of the indirect object pronoun (le) as to/for him/her your/it

The word "for" being the key point that confuses me in this case, I would guess.  

I would think the sentence would use "de" and be "Robaron el moto el otro día de su vecino." and not have the indirect object pronoun.

Help please!