Joerg Teuchert
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NORTH READING, MASS. (WHDH) – Police are investigating after thieves crashed into a motorsports shop in North Reading with a van and got away with several expensive motocross bikes.
Security footage at North Reading Motorsports captured a UHaul ram through the store’s glass doors on Saturday morning, giving a group of thieves an opening to seize several high-end motocross bikes.
Owner Fred Spinazzola shared the footage with 7NEWS, which showed the masked suspects as they caused nearly $100,000 in damage to his building before taking off with the bikes he recently received from Japan.
“They come during these times when we can’t get the product we really need to provide an income for our families,” Spinazzola said. “And when we get them and have the opportunity to make a few dollars with them, they’re taken away from us.”
Police say just an hour before the robbery, what may have been the same group attempted a similar stunt at another store, Cycles 128, in Beverly. They were caught scanning space with surveillance cameras.
Investigators are also looking into whether a break-in at the Pike Cycles store in Allston is related.
“It’s a devastating blow to a point where we’re already down,” owner Zachary Richards said.
Richards said he entered his store on Thursday morning to find a broken window and six recently imported scooters and one dirt bike missing.
“It’s the coolest thing since Nikes – it’s like having an imported bike, you’re the kid everyone in the neighborhood is talking about,” he told 7NEWS.
A police officer driving near the scene in North Reading reportedly tried to arrest the group on Saturday, but the suspects were able to flee.
Detectives believe the people behind the thefts have been operating in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for months, and are street racers who have used the bikes to torment neighborhoods everywhere.
“They need to hear about the people who got caught and how they were imprisoned,” Spinazzola said. “Consequences for that…there were none.”
Investigators said a total of six people were involved in the North Reading robbery and the UHaul used was stolen.
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