Bike shop owner slams police’s “abject apathy” after three shops broken into in one night
Posted on in Business News , Cycles News
A cycle shop owner has criticised the police’s “abject apathy” towards bike theft after thieves attempted to break into his store for the second time in a year, on the same night two other bike shops and a private residence were also targeted.
In one night, at least 17 bikes and other items were stolen during the series of raids which took place across Sussex.
At the Giant store in Shoreham, six men in balaclavas were spotted by local residents – who took videos of the burglary – breaking into the shop and stealing 14 high-end e-mountain bikes.
A private home was also burgled, with the thieves making off with, among other things, two Kinesis bikes and a Canyon gravel bike.
The thieves were thwarted, however, while trying to access South Downs Bikes, when a neighbour disturbed them interfering with the shop’s front door lock, causing them to scarper in a black BMW.
The failed Saturday raid is the second time in a year that South Downs Bikes has been the subject of a break-in, after three e-bikes were taken when a thief broke the shop’s office window with a brick.
And after none of the perpetrators were found in the wake of the first burglary, the Storrington shop’s director, Martin Richardson, isn’t convinced of Sussex Police’s ability to deal with what he refers to as a bike shop break-in “epidemic”.
“It seems like it’s spreading from one shop to the next. It’s like an epidemic,” Richardson told road.cc.
“We had a break-in about 12 months ago. A guy chucked a brick through the office window and stole three e-bikes. They put them in their van and realised that the bikes from an earlier break-in weren’t of the same quality as ours, so they dumped the seven bikes in one of our neighbours’ gardens!”
Referring to Saturday’s spate of break-ins, the South Downs Bikes director said: “I was speaking to the manager of the Giant shop in Shoreham, and residents took videos of these six guys in balaclavas, entering and exiting the shop with multiple e-bikes.
“We were able to capture an image of the one of the individuals who drove up in a black BMW and disabled the CCTV at the front of the shop externally. And we watched him on the CCTV take a little tool out of his pocket and get the lock off the door in a matter of 30 seconds!
“When we were broken into last time, the police officers eventually turned up and said ‘right, we’ve made a note of this, we’ll send you a crime number by email, and that’s the last you’ll see of us’. And we never heard anything whatsoever. They don’t give a damn, do they?”
“This time, I’ve only been talking to the Sussex Police by email. The response, as usual, is lukewarm. I obviously contacted them initially on their 101 and have now received the perfunctory crime number relating to the attempted break-in.
“I get the impression that provided you get a crime number and contact your insurance company, that’s the end of the matter as far as our wonderful police force is concerned. That’s why we securitise ourselves in such a way, because the police aren’t going to do anything. Abject apathy comes to mind.”