BikeBiz

Another shop falls victim to ploy and loses bike

BikeBiz has been informed that the 'test ride' bicycle thief has unfortunately succeeded in striking at another bike shop, this time at Dartmoor Cycles in Tavistock, Devon.

The news comes after reports of successful hits at JE James' Rotherham shop, Rutland Cycles and others (read the comments of that story for more on those, including a few near misses).

Matching the same description as the man who carried out the thefts at JE James and others, the suspect used the same 'test ride' technique of offering car keys as security on a test ride, supposedly with a view to purchasing the bike.

As in the other cases, the thief never returned from the test ride and the keys turned out to be dummies.

This time the suspect made off with an Intense DH bike from Dartmoor Cycles.

Bike shops are urged to be wary and note that the 'test ride' thief – seemingly the same man – has now struck at bike shops almost 300 miles apart, suggesting shop location is no guarantee that bike shops won't be targeted by the suspect.