The front door of Cadence Cycle hung open on Monday afternoon, the door tied in placed with a deflated bike tube, the window pane missing.
Inside, the shop bustled with customers but the inventory was sparse compared to the usual cramped feeling of the local bike shop owned by Dean Eyre.
Sometime between Saturday evening at 6 p.m. and Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. 16 high-end bikes, miscellaneous bicycle items, and cash from the till were stolen. In total, the missing items add up to more than $40,000 in value.
Eyre was back behind the counter on Monday afternoon, filling orders and repairing bikes, business continuing on, despite the sudden loss.
No surveillance footage of the thieves is available.
“You hope you don’t have to worry about that,” he said, “but I guess I should have been a little more diligent with my security system.”
The theft was large enough to register on a national scale, he said.
“It was pretty comprehensive.”
The shop has been targeted in the past, including earlier this summer when a few bikes were stolen from the yard. They were all recovered.
On Monday afternoon, a security company was on its way to give Eyre an estimate on installing a security system.
As for the bikes that are already gone, Eyre doesn’t expect them to show up on the local market. Insurance should be able to recoup some of the loss, and most of the bikes had registered serial numbers.
It’s likely that the bikes will stripped down and sold as parts through online retailers like eBay, Pinkbike and Craigslist.
The RCMP are currently investigating and asking for the public’s assistance.
RCMP Const. Dean Hoogland said while bicycle thefts in Whitehorse are reported often, a theft of this magnitude is “far and few between.” It’s the largest bicycle theft that’s been reported during Hoogland’s seven years on staff.
The missing bikes include four various sizes of Specialized Stump Jumpers, two Specialized Camber bikes, one Specialized P20 BMX, two Banshee bikes, four Rocky Mountain bikes, one Salsa bike, one Soda bike and one Cadet BMX bike.
There were all new, high-end models.
At approximately 7:30 a.m. Whitehorse RCMP members were dispatched to the Wood St. shop after receiving a 911 call from a concerned citizen, who spotted the broken glass from the front door.
In 2007, 44,013 bikes were reported stolen across Canada, according to StatsCan.
If you have any information, Whitehorse RCMP can be contacted at 667-5551.
Contact Sam Riches at
sam@yukon-news.com