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Are bike shop burglaries becoming more professional? Owner says shop was hit four times by “Mission Impossible-style” raids – and claims police asked if break-in was “inside job”

Brazen reconnaissance, cutting through ceilings and walls, crawling across floors, and ineffectual policing – are bike thieves becoming more sophisticated and persistent?

The increasing sophistication and professionalism of thieves breaking into cycle shops across the UK is becoming a worrying trend that police are failing to take seriously, says one bespoke bike shop owner whose business has been targeted in four “Mission Impossible-style” burglary attempts in the past seven months – to the extent that an officer even questioned whether one of the break-ins was an “inside job”.

While opportunistic smash-and-grab thefts, from ram-raiders driving into and destroying shopfronts to teenagers shamelessly nicking bikes on display, remain depressingly prevalent for cycle shop owners, recent years have seen a rise in meticulously prepared and co-ordinated burglaries carried out by organised criminals targeting local, independent bike shops.

Earlier this week, Steve Heathcock, the owner of C6 Bikes in Cambridgeshire, told road.cc that his store was broken into last October by thieves displaying a “baffling” level of knowledge about the building’s layout, enabling them to steal £200,000 worth of high-end bikes, kit, and components without being caught on CCTV.

C6 Bikes hit by "brutal" burglary (Steve Heathcock)

> "If you told me the SAS did this, I'd believe you": Bike shop loses almost all stock in staggering break-in "like Hatton Garden heist"

“If you told me the SAS fast-roped out a helicopter and did this, I would believe you,” Heathcock said of the raid, which saw the thieves scale their way onto the roof, cut the building’s point of sight broadband wire, cut a hole in the side of the shop, and take 90 per cent of C6’s stock, barely leaving any trace behind them.

“If you watch that documentary on the Hatton Garden robbery, they essentially did the same thing to get into that place,” Steve told us, adding that his insurers “still don’t believe me, I don’t think”.

“You see stuff where someone turns up with a Ranger Rover and drives into the front window, it’s a smash and grab and off you go. But when we walked in, it looked like someone had moved us out.”

“There was a huge bloody hole in the floor!”

Since Steve shared his story on road.cc, another bike shop owner in neighbouring Northamptonshire got in touch to describe a similarly methodical attempt to steal bikes and components from her business, which has been the subject of four burglaries – only one of which was successful – since February.

The Gorilla Firm, a bespoke bike and custom build shop in Oundle, was first targeted in February, when thieves cut their way into the building’s staff toilet from below and somehow evaded the company’s motion sensor CCTV by crawling across the floor, before “clearing out” the shop’s SRAM componentry and power meters.

Gorilla Firm Cycling, Oundle

“Back in February, my husband came into work, no alarms had been set off or anything, and as he walked into the building, he realised he was walking on grit and gravel, and there was a massive draft,” Gorilla Firm co-owner Justine tells road.cc.

“And he went into the backroom and there was a huge bloody hole in the floor! The closer he looked, he realised someone had been in the storeroom and basically cleared us out of all our SRAM groupsets and power meters, very high-end stuff. They knew exactly what they were looking for, they knew exactly where it was, and they knew that the storeroom didn’t have CCTV inside.”

> Bike shop targeted in "lawless" raid attempt, major damage as car rammed into building twice

As the shop’s owners attempted to get to the bottom of the burglary, the extent to which it was a carefully planned and meticulously executed raid became clear.

“When we went back to look at all the CCTV, initially we couldn’t see anything at all,” Justine continued. “Our CCTV is motion sensor – and they came in and slid across our floor at the pace of a snail into our cupboard, and turned the light on in the cupboard.

“And all I could see was a flash of light which activated the CCTV, and that was what alerted me to it. Further along I could just see someone’s legs and hands dragging a bright red SRAM box. And there was another bit of footage where I could see someone lying face-down on the floor of our workshop pointing their camera flashlight up at our alarm system.

“It was absolutely bizarre. And the reason they didn’t take more than they did, is because where they broke in there are lots of plumbing pipes. So even though they managed to squeeze in, they could only take small things out. It was all so surreal, it was very Mission Impossible-style stuff.”

Gorilla Firm Cycling, Oundle (Oundle Wharf)

Justine also believes that the thorough knowledge displayed by the thieves of the shop and its surroundings – Gorilla Firm is located on the Oundle Wharf retail park, alongside restaurants, bakeries, and a brewery – was the result of a detailed and brazen reconnaissance mission carried out before the burglary.

“What was awful was the thought that they’d obviously been in the shop,” she says. “We’re a small shop, there are only three of us. They potentially were someone we’d invited in, shown them around, made them a coffee, talked to them about a bike build. And they had no intention of being a customer, and came back and robbed us.”

Justine continued: “What we found afterwards – we’re on a wharf and there’s a restaurant beside us – the weekend before they broke in, they’d removed all the cameras from the Tap and Kitchen Restaurant that we’re pointing towards out building, so nothing was caught on their cameras. It was a really professional job. There was nothing on any of the exterior CCTV, it was just bizarre.”

> Brazen bike thieves foiled in dramatic pursuit after nicking Bromptons from front of store and threatening to knife chasing shop manager

While Justine and her team responded to the break-in by reinforcing their security measures, the successful February raid on the shop’s SRAM componentry was only the first of a series of attempts to steal the shop’s high-end goods, also involving tools and tactics straight out of a Hollywood heist film.

“Since then, we beefed up our alarm system and changed our CCTV. But then in May, the alarms went off. They’d come back to get more stuff, and they’d cut all the wiring to the whole building – where there’s a bakery, a wine shop, a brewery – they smashed off the CCTV cameras from the front and rear of the building,” she says.

“They then climbed on top of the roof and tried to saw through our ceiling to get in, which obviously set off the alarm.

“And then there was another time when my husband disturbed them when he came in early for work at half four in the morning. As he walked into the workshop, he felt grit underfoot. And again, they had broken into the empty unit and used a reciprocating saw to get through the wall into the workshop, but had been disturbed so fled.

“It’s mental though, the effort and lengths they’ve been going to get in and steal stuff.”

“They’re targeting small independent businesses… It’s greed and opportunism”

However, in a similar manner to the response to the C6 burglary, and despite the criminal gang’s persistent attempts, Justine says Northamptonshire Police have “literally done nothing” to get to the bottom of the raids – and have even gone as far as questioning whether the robbery was an “inside job”.

“We called the police and they took a full statement, but forensics didn’t find anything,” Justine says. “The initial police that came in February were a bit weird, they said they’d never seen anything like it before, and asked if it was an inside job. Well, there’s only three of us and it’s our own business and own money, it’s ridiculous.

“And I was like, ‘you’ve never seen anything like this – are you sure?’ Because I’d seen C6 was broken into. But nothing ever came of any of it. And when they came back later, they said they’d check the CCTV of the houses nearby. But they’ve literally done nothing.  

“When the C6 story was shared on Facebook, there were lots of people saying ‘it’s an inside job, it’s an inside job’ – which just made me furious. Steve had shared his story about his bike shop being broken into and what a professional job it was, and all people could say was, ‘oh, he’s obviously in on it, and on the take’. And that made me cross, because it’s not just him.”

Gorilla Firm Cycling, Oundle (Gorilla Firm)

She continued: “I sent the police all the contact details of Steve from C6 and said, ‘I know it’s Cambridgeshire, but we’re only Northamptonshire, we’re neighbouring counties, maybe they have information’.

“But I just don’t think the police are interested, they don’t really care. As far as they were concerned, it’s a crime, but they didn’t take that much, our insurance took care of it – but they’re not seeing a wider pattern. And there certainly is a wider pattern, as so many bike shops are being broken into.”

> Bike shop owner slams police’s “abject apathy” after three shops and private residence broken into in one night during bike theft spree

But as this wider pattern emerges of criminals launching sophisticated and targeted raids on independent bike shops, at a time when demand for bikes has plummeted, the question must be raised: What’s the motivation behind these increasingly professional and persistent burglaries?

It’s a question that even puzzles Justine.

“A lot of our stuff is high-end, it’s niche, but I don’t know if it’s that,” she says. “I don’t know if they’re stealing to order, I just don’t know. Cycling is a big market, it’s expensive, it’s easier to move things, as people don’t necessarily have trackers on the products.

“And they know the risk of getting caught is so minimal because no-one puts any effort into trying. But I don’t know, I just don’t know where the stuff goes either.

“And it’s not like there isn’t plenty of bikes out there. I don’t know much about it, but I don’t think the secondary market is great at the moment, it’s not like during Covid when you could sell stuff for an absolute fortune and make a killing – I don’t know what the motivation is.

“If you’re stealing that kind of stuff – say you steal a Pinarello Dogma, I have no idea what you get for that. But I suppose you could still get £1,000 for it, even at a third of trade. Though I think it’s not even that.

“Times are hard, thefts are on the rise, and it’s as simple as that. But it’s not like they’re stealing milk to feed their families. They’re targeting small independent businesses – not big corporates, they’re not targeting big warehouses. They’re going after small independents, assuming they don’t have great security and emptying the shops. It’s greed and opportunism.”

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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16 comments

Avatar
EraserBike | 3 weeks ago
0 likes

Police don't care about stopping crime anymore. Theft is essentially legal in the UK now.

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TheUntypicals | 4 weeks ago
1 like

Go Outdoors, Evans, Halfords, Smyth Toys etc all get targeted regularly but they don't talk about as it is bad for business, the police don't help them either.  Effective solution are multipe air tags in the frames, dog or dogs in the shop, having people live above the shop/premises, higher sensitivity on cameras etc, keeping CCTV coverage for longer period so you can check back, having CCTV out of reach, having razor or barb wire inside roofs and below floors or between walls if need be. Electronic shutters should not have a manual over ride. Insist all "customers" take a email or text receipt preferably also a postcode so they can be traced at a latter date...

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Smoggysteve replied to TheUntypicals | 4 weeks ago
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Razor wire is legal in public areas. Only military or govt areas can use it. But even so, I don't want the high street looking like a dystopian war zone with barbed wire and metal shutters everywhere. 
 

AirTags are easy to defeat, and you can find one just by waving a phone near it. 
 

Bikes are an easy target for what they are. Expensive desirable bit of kit that are difficult to trace. There isn't many other commodities that you would openly show to the public that you have which people know is expensive . A decent bike can cost thousands and if a criminal wants to take it, you're extremely vulnerable to being mugged. It's not only the price of the complete bike. But it's an industry that has a thriving components market. All totally untraceable. All wasn't ship around without raising suspicion. 
 

when did you last look at something for sale on eBay or Facebook marketplace? Need a new derailleur ? Nice set of carbon wheels? New carbon handlebars? How do you know they were not stolen? Easy to strip down a bike and sell it bit by bit. There are no end of willing consumers for used parts. 
 

it really is a perfect crime for anyone wanting to steal bikes. There is so little protection and u like most luxury goods you can sell lots and no one shows any concern. 

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Rendel Harris replied to Smoggysteve | 4 weeks ago
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Smoggysteve wrote:

Razor wire is legal in public areas. Only military or govt areas can use it.

Guessing you meant to say illegal but that's not actually the case (as far as I know), although it is advised that it should be installed at a height of over 2.4 m (otherwise local authorities will usually demand its removal as a danger to the passing public) and be accompanied by clear and prominent signage warning of its dangers. Security consultants will often advise against its installation because property owners have a duty of care even to intruders and so it could lead to civil action, but it's not actually illegal.

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Smoggysteve replied to Rendel Harris | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

Yes I meant illegal, and yes it is. It is too dangerous and the good old British law states that you still owe a duty of care to thieving rascals and were one to cut themselves to ribbons in razor wire they would sue you. 

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Rendel Harris replied to Smoggysteve | 3 weeks ago
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Smoggysteve wrote:

Yes I meant illegal, and yes it is. It is too dangerous and the good old British law states that you still owe a duty of care to thieving rascals and were one to cut themselves to ribbons in razor wire they would sue you. 

Sorry to disagree but you're mistaken, it isn't illegal to put up razor wire. As I said above, guidelines are that it should be mounted as a height of over 240 cm and should be accompanied by appropriate warning signage and yes, you are right that there is a danger, as I also said, that one could be sued even by someone who is on your premises with illegal intent if they were injured by it (this risk is greatly mitigated if you have the aforementioned warning signage) but it is not illegal to put it up. 

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mdavidford replied to Smoggysteve | 3 weeks ago
3 likes

You may be leaving yourself open to civil action, but that's not the same as being illegal. There are lots of things you can do which are legal, but which could lead to you being sued if they resulted in harm to others.

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HLaB replied to TheUntypicals | 3 weeks ago
0 likes

TheUntypicals wrote:

Go Outdoors, Evans, Halfords, Smyth Toys etc all get targeted regularly but they don't talk about as it is bad for business, the police don't help them either. 

Maybe they are but its their relative scale etc; a small lbs hasnt a number of shops that will support the disruption or the cashflow to ease things over whilst insurance pays out for what is quite high value stock.

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Rua_taniwha | 4 weeks ago
1 like

Security installers selling information to criminals? 

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FionaJJ replied to Rua_taniwha | 3 weeks ago
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I'd assume these were by the same gang. If I were the police I'd definitely be checking up on whether the different shops involved have anything in common regarding their security systems. If they are different it also tells us something about their expertise.

At the very least, the person (possibly more than one to get the required information without raising too many suspicions) who cased the premises has advanced understanding of how the systems work, which suggests some experience as a security installer, and the particular systems used.

It's interesting that the security cameras of other premises were taken out ahead of time. I hope that information gets out there, so people become aware of it as a potential early warning of a burglary.

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Smoggysteve | 4 weeks ago
2 likes

If a jewellers left thousands of pounds in diamonds and gold on display in a shop window you'd call them insane. If a car dealer left all the keys easily accessible you'd say the same, but a bike shop will leave frames and bikes worth 4-5 figure sums out on a shop floor. Its really candy from a baby for hardened criminals. Why go to the bother of going into your high street jewellery and watch shop with a shotgun and balaclavas when you can steal something just as valuable and most more difficult to trace in bikes? You're frame might have a serial but has that dura ace groupset or 60mm deep carbon wheelset? EBay is awash with components and nobody bats an eyelid. If I saw someone trying to flog a Rolex or 20 carat diamond ring I'd be a bit sus. 
 

this is the perfect crime for those who are willing to take the risk . 

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TheUntypicals replied to Smoggysteve | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

Car dealers regularly have cars stolen off the forecourts, most of their valeters have long criminal records and other methods are used to obtain keys...

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Smoggysteve replied to TheUntypicals | 4 weeks ago
1 like

Yes, and they are more likely sold abroad or sold in bits. Not so much complete cars. But modern cars do have a lot of security features. It's more difficult to steal a car than a bike. Cars have alarms, immobilisers, they are insured by law when on the road, the can have trackers fitted that are monitored by the manufacturer. I'm not saying cars are without their issue too, but the ease of which bike bits can be shifted online without question makes them a much more ideal target for low level criminals 

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quiff replied to Smoggysteve | 3 weeks ago
1 like

You'd call the jeweller or car dealership insane because jewellery and keys will easily fit in a reasonably sized safe overnight. Not so plausible with multiple bikes.

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Rendel Harris replied to Smoggysteve | 3 weeks ago
1 like

Where do you suggest they put the bikes overnight and how could the location be more secure than the shops described above? Also, how could a bike shop of any size afford the time, personnel and rental on secure space needed to move the entire stock out every night and back every morning (not to mention the risk of being hit by violent thugs whilst doing so)? It's not as simple as moving a bunch of necklaces or car keys into an impregnable safe. Getting a wee bit too close to victim blaming for my taste there.

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Aberdeencyclist | 4 weeks ago
2 likes

This type of planned raid should be absolutely nothing new to insurers , crooks have been organising these for decades for different goods , it's just high end bikes are now worth nicking . Disappointing Insurers are delaying . It's almost certain the intelligence was gathered by someone in the shop as the trader thinks . Hope they get paid out soon

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