Two men have been arrested after they rammed a car into a bike shop in Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire and stole two bikes, leaving the front of the shop completely destroyed.
On 27 July, Saturday night, Beverley Car & Cycles shop in Norwood, Beverley was ram-raided, with the two men believed to have then entered the store and stolen two bikes, before fleeing in the vehicle. The police was called on to the scene around midnight.
A spokesperson for Humberside Police said: "Following lines of enquiries, two men, aged 25 and 21, were identified and arrested in connection with the incident. The 25-year-old has been released without charge and the 21-year-old has been released on conditional bail whilst our enquiries continue.
"We continue to follow up on several lines of enquiries, including reviewing CCTV footage from the area.
"We would appeal to anyone with any information that may assist with our investigation, to please call us on our non-emergency number 101 quoting log 1 of 27 July."
Beverley Car & Cycles has been ran by Lee Frost for the last 20 years. On the shop website, it says: "With fully trained local staff we are committed to providing the best possible service with competitive pricing."
Chris Terry shared a picture of the shop front, which was left completely demolished with the glass windows smashed and the facade mowed down to smithereens. He wrote on Facebook: "Madness in Beverley on Norwood tonight. Heard what I thought was a car crash and then several follow up crashes. Looked out of the window to witness a ram raid taking place at the bike shop. Saw two high powered cars flying from the scene and this..."
Sympathies and condolences poured in for Mr Frost and the shop, with many people expressing their dismay in the comments. Jane Jesop wrote: "Such a lovely man, does not deserve this. Horrid low lives to do something like this."
Jane Peck commented: "So very sorry for Lee (and Debbie). He’s always worked so very hard to provide a top notch service and business. This is absolutely shocking," while Jason Wells said: "I’m gutted for Lee and his staff, the most customer focused business I’ve ever had the pleasure to deal with, really not on, hope the deviants are caught."
In December last year, there were two ram-raids in the country in the space of a week. Godleys Cycles & Triathlon Equipment in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, described as a popular bike shop fell victim to a shocking attempted burglary during which a car was rammed into the shopfront twice causing heavy damage to the building and writing off high-value stock inside.
Owner Paul Godley told road.cc no bikes were stolen, but "more than a dozen are buried under the rubble and damaged beyond repair".
Then just five days later, ram-raiding thieves used a car to smash through the front of a bike shop in Watford before making off with one bike, and causing what was described as “extensive damage” to the building as well as to “a significant amount of stock.”
The smash-and-grab raid, in which a green Orbea bike valued at £4,000 was stolen, was at the Watford branch of Cycles UK, the company said in a statement emailed to road.cc.
road.cc has contacted Beverley Car & Cycles for comment.