Police are investigating after four houses on one street in the Cumbria town of Kendal were burgled in a single night, break-ins that police believe were specifically targeting five bikes which were stolen.

Cumbria Police believes the burglars targeted the properties specifically for their owners’ bikes, Emma Ennis telling the BBC that her £7,000 custom mountain bike was one of the five bikes taken during the night of break-ins overnight on 15 September.

It has raised concerns about how the cyclists were targeted and how the criminals responsible worked out which bikes could be stolen from each property, Ms Ennis explaining how she believes the burglars had been watching them as all affected neighbours returned from separate cycling holidays within a few days of each other.

In the past it has also been suggested that the rise of social media and ride-sharing apps like Strava could inadvertently be leading criminals to high-value bikes.

“It’s definitely shaken us up, it feels unfair,” Ms Ennis said. “They’ve taken a big project of mine, it’s what we do with our spare time, we ride bikes, it’s what we love — they’ve just removed that element of my life from me and that just feels really cruel.”

The properties targeted were on Kendal’s Hallgarth Estate, Ms Ennis’s bike worth £7,000 and the other bikes stolen also described as “high-end” models.

“People just see it as a bike, but it’s what we do, it’s who we are and it’s taken me probably six years to build up that bike, even down to my saddle, to make it specific for me,” she explained. “It definitely felt like they’d waited until we were all back and then waited for the weather window actually, because the rain was so loud, nothing could be heard.”

She urged other riders to check their social media profiles’ security settings but explained how hers were already private.

Increasingly well-planned and highly organised burglaries targeting cyclists and cycling businesses have become a worryingly common story on road.cc, from professional teams targeted at races to UK-based bike shops hit by sophisticated break-ins.

> 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”

In February, a rare gold Aurum Magma was among multiple bikes stolen from a Northamptonshire bike shop that had previously suffered four other burglary attempts in the past year.

Those incidents saw brazen reconnaissance, cutting through ceilings and walls, and intruders crawling across floors to avoid setting off alarms, the police questioning if the “Mission Impossible-style” raids were an inside job.

Last September the owner of C6 Bikes in Cambridgeshire said “if you told me the SAS did this, I’d believe you”, that after his business lost all stock in a staggering break-in described as “like the Hatton Garden heist”.

C6 Bikes hit by "brutal" burglary
C6 Bikes hit by "brutal" burglary (Image Credit: Steve Heathcock)

The targeted raid saw a 10m-high roof scaled, internet wires cut, access gained by  a “super precise” cut to an exterior wall, complex alarms disabled, and £200,000 of stock stolen, all without the burglars leaving a trace or any CCTV footage.