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"If you told me the SAS did this, I'd believe you": Bike shop loses almost all stock in staggering break-in "like Hatton Garden heist"

C6 Bikes owner says targeted raid saw 10m-high roof scaled, internet wires cut, access gained by "super precise" cut to exterior wall, complex alarms disabled, and £200,000 of stock stolen, all without leaving a trace or any CCTV footage...

"We're still here. We're still going. We're still selling bikes."

That's the resolute message from the owner of C6 Bikes in Cambridgeshire, the cycle shop having been victims of an extraordinarily organised targeted break-in 11 months ago, a burglary which saw 90 per cent of stock taken and left the business fighting to claim insurance money due to the lack of any trace left by the thoroughness of the raid.

"If you told me the SAS fast-roped out a helicopter and did this, I would believe you," owner Steve Heathcock told road.cc, before going on to explain how the perpetrators, who have not been caught, stole £200,000 worth of high-end bikes, kit and components without being caught on CCTV.

During the break-in overnight on the 23rd October 2023 the shop, located on an industrial estate just off the A10 in Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, was targeted in a meticulous raid by organised criminals displaying what Steve called a "baffling" level of knowledge about the building and shop's layout and security.

"If you watch that documentary on the Hatton Garden robbery, they essentially did the same thing to get into that place," he said, adding that his insurers "still don't believe me, I don't think".

"You see stuff where someone turns up with a Ranger Rover and drives into the front window, it's a smash and grab and off you go. But when we walked in, it looked like someone had moved us out."

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

The burglars avoided being picked up on CCTV throughout and began by scaling their way onto the 10-metre-high roof to cut through the building's point of sight broadband wire.

"They waited an hour, came back, and cut a hole in the side of the building. Again, they knew exactly where to cut a hole. There's only one square metre on the ground floor that's unobstructed that you could actually come into, but they knew where that was," Steve continued. "So they came in through that, and then once they were in, they somehow got right across the other side of the building, because the alarm control unit is on the opposite wall, without setting off anything.

"Then they disarmed the alarm completely and got around all the anti-tamper on the case. We've got a fogging device in there as well, so when the alarm sounds it fills a place with disco smoke in 20 seconds. They knocked that out as well. Then, once they did that, they had time to cut all the locks off the roller shutters. They basically rolled the roller shutters off, we think. We don't know, because they avoided all the CCTV on the site, and there's only one road in or out of the site, but somehow they've got in and avoided all the CCTV. They're not on CCTV anywhere.

"We think they rolled the shutters up, backed a van in, moved two tonnes of anti-ram raid to the other side of the door somehow, filled the van up, and drove off."

Such was the professionalism of the job, when Steve arrived with an alarm engineer on Monday morning, thinking the alarm had lost comms as the broadband often goes down at the site, there was nothing to suggest a burglary had even taken place. It was only when he got in that he found the shop still "pristine", but missing almost everything.

"If you told me the SAS did this, I would believe you"

"Every single bike had gone, plus their pick of the customer bikes we had in the workshop," Steve said. "Trek Madones, all the highest stuff. We had to replace six customer bikes, every single stock bike we had. Cannondale SuperSix Evos, Trek Domanes, Trek Madones, Orange e-bikes, Santa Cruz mountain bikes, Cannondale mountain bikes, everything. All the Fox clothing, helmets, all the high-end groupsets like eTap, Red eTap, all the high-end parts and accessories, they knew exactly what they were getting.

"If you told me the SAS fast-roped out a helicopter and did this, I would believe you. Because of the way they disarmed that alarm, you can't even open the case without setting the anti-tamper trigger off. They knew where the anti-tamper trigger was on that case. They knew it had to peel up a specific corner. The alarm engineer said to me, 'I don't think I could have done this without setting it off, I don't know how they did it'.

"There was a perfect 50cm square cut in the side of the wall. Just real precise, clean, like Ocean's Eleven type stuff. Super neat. No mess anywhere, no destruction, just super precise. We couldn't believe it and the insurance company couldn't believe it.

"We had two guys dressed like Ray Mears turn up and they were like, 'Oh yeah, the insurance company employed us, we're going to find out what happened here'. I was like, 'What? What do you mean find out what happened? They've been in and taken all of our bikes'. So the insurance company called us and said, 'It's like an inside job'. None of us are clever enough to pull that off."

Ultimately, after much stress, C6 Bikes has been paid for the lost stock, stolen customers' bikes and business interruption, despite some uncertainty when the business interruption payments were halted, that after a five-month wait for liability to be accepted.

However, Steve points out the claim is "still not resolved" completely, and he was also unimpressed with the police's response to the burglary.

"The police weren't interested," he suggested. "I haven't so much as seen a police officer. Forensics turned up on day one and that was it. I've been out to alarm faults two or three weeks after the incident and called the police to say, 'Look, I'm worried about this, I'm on my own. Can the police officer meet me there or do a drive by or something?'

"And they're like, 'No, we don't need to come out for that'. So they say, 'Can you check it out? And if you see a crime happening, phone us'. So I've literally got to take my life and law into my own hands to protect my business.

"It's been really, really difficult. The shop's full again, but we're still living under the cloud of what's happened and the orders that we've had to refund and not be able to fulfil. It's brutal. Absolutely brutal."

C6 Bikes hit by "brutal" burglary (Steve Heathcock)

However, in an admirable show of perseverance Steve is determined for it to be "a good news story".

"We know that we're still here. We're coming back better and stronger. We just need support of our customers and the local cycling community, national cycling community, more than ever really," he said.

"We're still here. We're still going. We're still selling bikes. I've had to put some of my own money in it. We've had to fight for the insurance money. It's one of those things, you can let it beat you or you use it as, first of all, to learn from for your security and day-to-day operation. Use it as a bit of a hard reset to look at the business in terms of what you're doing, do something differently going forward and then try and come back bigger and better."

Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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26 comments

Avatar
Bobby B | 4 weeks ago
1 like

With the amount of knowledge about the shop layout and its security systems, if it wasn't an inside assisted job, maybe it was whoever fitted the security systems, or they sold that info on.

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peted76 | 1 month ago
1 like

It's awful of course, but also impressive!

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Aberdeencyclist | 1 month ago
1 like

Another bike shop raid on an industrial estate . Worrying that the broadband (?) line was visible to cut .
On these remote estates a lot of insurers are specifying dual alarm signalling incorporating mobile phone alerts to the central station , in addition to the broadband / telephone line with continuous fault monitoring
Getting ridiculous the lengths a business has to go to protect themselves

Avatar
grOg replied to Aberdeencyclist | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

Not ridiculous, it's common sense to make such systems as fool-proof as possible; I can see why the insurers and police thought this was an inside job..

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hawkinspeter replied to Aberdeencyclist | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

Aberdeencyclist wrote:

Another bike shop raid on an industrial estate . Worrying that the broadband (?) line was visible to cut . On these remote estates a lot of insurers are specifying dual alarm signalling incorporating mobile phone alerts to the central station , in addition to the broadband / telephone line with continuous fault monitoring Getting ridiculous the lengths a business has to go to protect themselves

What we should do is solve two problems at once. Arrange for homeless people to stay in businesses overnight in return for them keeping guard and alerting police/business owners if someone tries to break in. Something like a panic button alarm, so they can press the button before thieves have time to threaten them etc.

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Laz replied to hawkinspeter | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

why not keep the business running 24/7? (albiet scaled down beyond normal retail hours); set up a stationary bike exercise room,  that can be connected to all kinds of tech to help motivate and maaintain/grow a customer base- lots of folks want a good workout early morning before work etc.

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don simon fbpe | 1 month ago
1 like

Are they sure the CCTV footage wasn't of a replica shop? 

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quiff replied to don simon fbpe | 1 month ago
4 likes

Ocean's Eleven Speed?

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Rendel Harris | 1 month ago
3 likes

So to precis the insurance company's argument for not paying out, the fact that you've been robbed proves that you haven't been robbed. It's a great catch, that catch 22, the best there is...

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hawkinspeter | 1 month ago
1 like

This kind of thing is going to keep happening until manufacturers start putting tracking devices into frames.

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bikeman01 replied to hawkinspeter | 1 month ago
0 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

This kind of thing is going to keep happening until manufacturers start putting tracking devices into frames.

Which is perhaps what the shop owner should have done but i bet hasnt.

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quiff replied to bikeman01 | 1 month ago
4 likes

Given the details of this heist, whoever was able to pull this off probably wouldn't have been fazed by some trackers.

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hawkinspeter replied to quiff | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

quiff wrote:

Given the details of this heist, whoever was able to pull this off probably wouldn't have been fazed by some trackers.

Possibly, but if the trackers are built into the frames by manufacturers, then it makes them more difficult to sell and of course it provides another thing that the thieves have to think about.

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hawkinspeter replied to bikeman01 | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

bikeman01 wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

This kind of thing is going to keep happening until manufacturers start putting tracking devices into frames.

Which is perhaps what the shop owner should have done but i bet hasnt.

No, it needs to be the manufacturers making the trackers part of the frame so that they can't be removed, but can expose a charging port.

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Pedal those squares | 1 month ago
0 likes

Just putting this out there as a possiblity.

It was a practice run from something MUCH bigger.  

What this space...

(sorry bad choice of words, as space was the only thing they left)

Good luck getting the shop back up and running!

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Sedis replied to Pedal those squares | 1 month ago
1 like

Pedal those squares wrote:

Just putting this out there as a possiblity.

It was a practice run from something MUCH bigger.  

What this space...

(sorry bad choice of words, as space was the only thing they left)

Good luck getting the shop back up and running!

The article wrote:

"During the break-in overnight on the 23rd October 2023"

It was 11 months ago, so hopefully not

Avatar
half_wheel79 | 1 month ago
6 likes

Unreal, I'd be pouring through CCTV in the weeks leading up to it, knowing exactly where to cut through the wall and knowing where the alarms are connected means someone was in the shop confirming this and likely pacing it out. But then again as he said, the police don't give a damn so whats the point...

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Cyclo1964 replied to half_wheel79 | 1 month ago
6 likes

Yeah that'll be a job for the police.......oh wait ! 

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brooksby replied to half_wheel79 | 1 month ago
1 like

half_wheel79 wrote:

Unreal, I'd be pouring through CCTV in the weeks leading up to it, knowing exactly where to cut through the wall and knowing where the alarms are connected means someone was in the shop confirming this and likely pacing it out. But then again as he said, the police don't give a damn so whats the point...

Exactly.  If the owner is absolutely sure that it wasn't a disgruntled employee then it MUST be someone who's been in the building (courier, telecomms contractor, security advisor, etc etc).

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quiff replied to brooksby | 1 month ago
2 likes

Or even just a 'customer' with their cycle-helmet mounted camera running. 

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brooksby replied to quiff | 1 month ago
1 like

I wonder if they noticed Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg visiting…  3

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Aberdeencyclist replied to brooksby | 1 month ago
0 likes

This will have been in the insurers minds , good ventilation that an alarm and smoke cloak were no barrier to the theft

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Jakrayan replied to half_wheel79 | 1 month ago
3 likes

Most CCTV systems overwrite footage after a 'reasonable period' due to privacy concerns - GDPR, Information Commisioner etc, so if the thieves were as organised and professional as it seems then I would expect them to have waited a while after casing the joint before going back. 

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Rome73 | 1 month ago
11 likes

Now I'm not a professional tea leaf but I would imagine that 200K of stolen goods is not a particularly large haul. (Especially when you would sell it on for less and especially with the amount of effort that went into this job) I think the reason for the theft is in the observation made by the shop owner - the police did not care. Bike theft is decriminalised. Even if you get caught the sentence will be minimal if not a fine. Like most burglary, the police treat it as an insurance issue rather than a criminal one.  Cycle theft is a low risk activity. 

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Laz replied to Rome73 | 4 weeks ago
0 likes

you are correct- things can be replaced; cops are expensive, trials and jails are expensive (time and money). violence is more important to contain.

the burden on the taxpayer to increase the level of policing necessary to contain this type of theft is far greater than simple insurance coverage

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OldRidgeback | 1 month ago
6 likes

I hope the bike business can keep going. That must be really demoralising. These thieves sound incredibly well organised. I expect the haul was out of the country very quickly. 

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