Surveillance cameras at a downtown Los Angeles business captured the attempted robbery in which robbers in a U-Haul box truck entered a parking lot through a steel gate and attempted to drive into a brick building.
About a dozen other masked suspects waited, hoping the truck driver would crash into the brick bicycle shop building.
The incident happened at a Just Ride in Los Angeles and happened over the weekend. The owner, who gave his name only as Danny, said he had never seen anything so extreme happen at his store.
“You go through the gate into the warehouse and take out the bikes,” he told KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw.
Just Ride has been in business for 15 years, selling bikes and scooters. Although the would-be thieves did not take any of the store’s merchandise, they caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to the already struggling business.
“We’ve had the most difficult year in our 15 years of business, so this definitely doesn’t help,” Danny said. “It’s terrible, we can’t even call this a small business anymore. In this day and age, we are a small business. We can barely pay our rent.”
The owner of Just Ride LA believes his store may have been the target of a spate of bike thefts in the state.
“We know that there was a ring where they robbed various bike shops in Cali and across the country,” he explained. “So we’re just one of them, and many of them may have made it. Fortunately, we’re OK, but I mean they got pretty close.”
Danny said he wishes more could be done to stop criminals from breaking into stores and is considering more barriers to protect store property, but police are in the area. He said he hopes the military presence will be strengthened.
“I think there needs to be a certain type of prosecution against these kinds of efforts, and there should be more of a presence,” he said. “Even though we don’t have that many police officers, they seem to be spread out and wearing multiple hats to respond to the homeless.”
Anyone with information regarding the attempted break-in is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department. Anonymous tips can be submitted through LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or online at LA Crime Stoppers.
