A specialist seller of off-road motorcycles has lost equipment worth around £20,000 in a break-in in Greater Manchester.
Extreme Motocross in Farnworth was targeted in an overnight raid at the end of last year. Three bikes belonging to the business and three that belonged to customers were taken in the break-in, along with motocross clothing and equipment.
Having a good level of business insurance, including retail insurance, is important to safeguard both the contents of your shop and to cover the cost of repairs to any damage caused if you are the victim of a break-in.
It’s estimated that the bikes taken in the burglary were worth a total of £13,500 while the equipment that was stolen was valued at £5,000.
Extreme Motocross was broken into via an empty flat above the shop, which one of the staff members was due to move into to provide additional security.
Kieran Gould, who is buying into the business, told The Bolton News: "The burglars broke in through the back and lifted the floorboards in the bedroom and cut through the floor joists and dropped in through the ceiling.
"They pulled the hidden alarm off. We have a steel door but the locks are on the inside so you can't break in from the outside. The burglars have had time to break these locks on the steel door from the inside and that's how they managed to wheel a couple of the bikes out.”
The shop has recently relocated to the site after outgrowing the industrial unit where the business was based. The owners said that security would be further improved during the repair of the premises.
Mr Gould added: “The only thing we can do is keep going, really although it's made us a bit more wary about what customers are coming in. No-one else knew where the alarm box was hidden and someone must have seen it by coming into the shop.”
