As a child, Gone In 60 Seconds was one of my favorite movies. I'm not sure how well the film has aged, but I know with certainty that stealing cars and motorcycles is an unbelievably shitty thing to do, especially having grown up and had my own stolen.
So, you can imagine the level of contempt I feel for a group of thieves who stole more than £90k (US $122,013 at the time of writing) worth of Aprilia motorcycles in the UK.
A group of four thieves apparently broke into Dearden Motorcycles at Hardley Industrial Estate, in Hardley, Hampshire, England, at around 1:40 am earlier in August. It took them just 20 minutes for the gang to force open the front door and smash a reinforced glass pane in the process. What the group was doing was clearly thuggish, but it also seems a lot more like organized crime than just a few random lads who suddenly decided to steal some bikes.
Why do I say that? Because after breaking in, the group spray-painted the security cameras and were gone within 10 minutes, after also nabbing seven Aprilias and loading them into a long-wheelbase van that they'd brought along, seemingly just for this purpose. This was pretty clearly a targeted attack, as the thieves went straight for the Aprilias and ignored everything else in the shop.
Sales manager Julie Bentley said, "They went straight for the Aprilias, so they knew exactly what they were after... The economic climate is bad enough for any business, but we're a small independent business. You try your hardest to make it work, and then you've got people like this who break in and think they can do what they like."
Unfortunately, motorcycle theft is becoming more and more of a reality in the UK, especially in London, where videos often surface of two thugs pulling up on a scooter, before the person on the back hops off and steals a motorcycle from a rider at the lights.
The powersports industry is struggling right now, in general. So if you've ever needed a reminder, or even an excuse, to support your local dealerships, this is it.
