By Brendan Rees
A Hampton Park man has been charged following a burglary at a Lynbrook bike shop where an intruder allegedly made off with a high-end bicycle.
Detectives from the Casey Crime Investigation Unit executed a search warrant at a Hampton Park address on Wednesday 26 August where a man was arrested and an alleged stolen electric bicycle seized.
The warrant followed an investigation into an alleged break-in at Performance Bicycle Australia at South Gippsland Highway in Lynbrook about 5am on Monday 24 August.
Detectives have charged the 45-year-old Hampton Park man with burglary, theft, and failure to comply with the Chief Health Officers directions and was bailed to appear at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court later this year.
The bike shop’s owner Craig, who asked not to use his surname, said he was impressed by the swift action of police after an intruder allegedly stole an Fuji-E hybrid bicycle worth $2000.
He said the incident was captured on closed-circuit television after a man in a face mask broke into his store about 4.45am and “just grabbed the closest bike and then went straight out the back door”.
Craig said the intruder took about 15 minutes to break-in after using tools to cut a large panel of glass and wire mesh at the front of the store.
He said police arrived about 10 minutes later on scene but the intruder had fled.
“The value of the bike is not the concern, it’s just all the other stuff that adds up,” he said referring to the damage bill, which he estimated to be thousands of dollars.
The incident was a double blow for the father-of-two, who like other retailers, has been forced to shut his shop during the stage-four Covid-19 restrictions.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “I’ve been in bike shops for 20 odd years so every bike shop we’ve had has been done over.”
He added his security cameras had also captured a man using a phone to film through the front windows the night before the incident.
