BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Sheffield’s Giant store is calling on bike shops around the country to be on alert following the theft of a £999 Stance mountain bike.
Posing as a legitimate customer, on the 17th December 2015 a man called the store and purchased a bike over the phone using a debit card. His so called son came to collect the bike which was being purchased as a gift. The collector spent close to an hour in the store engaging in a discussion’ about bikes and general chat, and then left with the bike.
On the 18th December the same man called to purchase another bike, claiming to be for his son’s twin brother. After a small amount of investigation, the purchase from the previous day, along with the second purchase on the 18th December had been deemed as fraudulent.
The same collector from the 17th December, came into the store on the 18th to pick up the second bike. Giant Store Sheffield staff worked with South Yorkshire police to set up a sting operation which saw one man detained and arrested at around 6.45pm on Friday 18th December in store.
According to a spokesperson of Giant Store Sheffield: "Fortunately staff at the store managed to prevent a second bike being stolen and did a great job in assisting South Yorkshire Police to get the man who came in store to do the collecting arrested and taken away. Sadly we do still have one bike missing and classed as stolen, we are frantically trying to find the whereabouts of this bike and any help in doing so would be much appreciated.”
The Giant Stance 27.5 2016 Size Medium carries the frame number: GR500948
The spokesperson concluded: "We need as many retailers and people to know about this as possible so the same doesn’t happen to them, we have enhanced our internal procedures, and encourage retailers nationwide to follow suit as a preventative.
Giant Store Sheffield have requested you visit their social page on Facebook – and share the stolen bike post to make the bike too hot to touch.
