SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — A South Jordan bike shop wants people to be on alert for electric mountain bikes that were stolen early Saturday morning.
These are not cheap bikes. The thief smashed a pickup truck through glass doors and was gone in two minutes.
Plywood now covers the glass entryway where the thief plowed into Hangar 15 Bicycles on Redwood Road at 3:15 Saturday morning. The operations manager estimated the break-in caused $50,000 of damage to the building and another $50,000 in stolen bikes.
“He just drove it clean through the front of the building through two of our glass sliding doors,” Kenny Charles said, operations manager of Hangar 15 Bicycles.
Surveillance video showed the thief driving into the parking lot of the shop, slowly taking a loop, then lining up with the door about 30 feet away from the glass doors and stopping. He got out of the truck, walked up to take a look into the store, then returned to the truck and accelerated into the building. He crashed into the showroom in a black Ford F250 or F350 truck.
“It actually looks like surprisingly enough he had a dog in the car with him,” Charles said. “It was one guy, just chucking E-bikes into the back of a truck. These aren’t exactly light, and he was just hurling them in the back of that pickup truck. So, I’m sure they were pretty damaged.”
He stole five electric mountain bikes: Specialized Levos which range in price from $6000 to $15,000.
“It rides a lot like a regular bicycle,” the manager said. “It’s really intuitive to ride. It’s going to be very smooth. So, that’s why that’s a popular, really sought-after bike.”
According to the timeline on the surveillance video, the bash-in burglar was in and out of the shop in two minutes.
“The guy, on his way out, ran over a bunch of bikes. There was glass and stuff everywhere,” Charles said.
Approximately 10 bikes are badly damaged. The shop manager thinks it was probably a stolen truck, and the police say that is likely.
“Bikes are only getting more expensive,” Charles said. “Unfortunately, they are fairly easy to physically steal. So, I think that’s why people are attracted to them.”
Call the South Jordan police if you know something about this burglary, or recognize something about the suspect.