Bike shop targeted in "lawless" raid attempt, major damage as car rammed into building twice

A popular local bike shop has fallen 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.

The attack on Godleys Cycles & Triathlon Equipment in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, owner Paul Godley telling road.cc no bikes were stolen, but "more than a dozen are buried under the rubble and damaged beyond repair".

At just before 2.45am a suspect in a silver car rammed the front of the shop twice, witnesses saying the car was abandoned, as seen in the photographs, but that the driver was joined by alleged suspects on quadbikes.

Mr Godley has owned the shop for 13 years and celebrated his 60th birthday on Saturday, hours before the news of the "lawless" ram-raid. Arriving at the scene he saw witnesses and police, as well as the abandoned car used to ram his shop's shutters, and is obviously concerned about the impact of the incident during the run up to Christmas.

"When I arrived I saw the car that had rammed the front of the shop. They haven't been able to make off with any bikes but there's a massive amount of damage," he added in comments provided to local news website Teeside Live.

"These are expensive bikes so the damage is costly but I don't have an exact figure yet. There's rubble everywhere. I've been here since before 3am and I can't leave until the store is secure again. Thankfully we are insured but it will have a big effect on our business. I just need to go through everything and assess the damage.

"The fear is that bikes which were suppose to be going out for Christmas have been damaged — that's what I'm most worried about. It's a bad time for something like this to happen.

"It's frustrating. It's just lawlessness. I see quadbikers causing problems quite often and they just seem to get away with anything."

The shop owner believes his CCTV camera was damaged during the incident, the business having been targeted before during an armed robbery and another occasion which saw a bike stolen.

> Pinarello bikes worth €250,000 stolen as manufacturer hit by double burglary

The high-value nature of bikes and e-bikes has unfortunately made the shops which sell them a target of crime, with numerous break-ins reported across the country in recent times. This time last year the owner of Run & Ride in Staffordshire said he was woken up by a smash-and-grab raid which saw £19,000 worth of bikes taken two days before Christmas.

In March of last year too, in Ireland, £116,000 worth of bikes were taken in a pre-planned raid on a family-run shop in Co Derry. 13 high-end bikes and five frames were stolen from Jonathan Smyth's Cicli Sport bike shop, including a custom build Pinarello Dogma F, worth over £15,000, and two Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7s.

Last November, a burglar involved in a raid on a bike shop in Cumbria, which saw bikes worth a total of £30,000 taken, was arrested following a 115mph police chase on the A6 in Lancashire.