A bike shop burlgary was caught on surveillance video.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - There's a recent rash of bicycle shop break-ins in Little Rock and North Little Rock. And one store caught the suspect on camera busting down the front door.
It's not clear at this point if there is a connection here. But in two of the cases, the store owners report a similar way breaking in with a rock thrown through the front door. And a store in West Little Rock caught a few throws on surveillance camera.
Surveillance video captures a suspect walking up to Arkansas Cycling and Fitness in West Little Rock. Armed with a rock, the burglar throws once and it bounces off the front door. A second try works out and about 20 seconds later, the suspect walks out with a bike.
"It just makes you sick, there's nothing you can do to stop it, all you can do it watch it happen so it's hard to watch," Store Manager Andy Barton said.
Barton says the break-in happened Tuesday, marking the fourth burglary here since early September. There's been four road bikes stolen, valued all together around $8,000.
"We've gone so far as to look into having people stay up here at night just so we can sleep better," Barton said.
It's a tough time there and at Riders Ready in North Little Rock. Owner Jeremy Chandler showed us the rock thrown through his front door about two weeks ago during a break-in.
"I don't know what gets into the mind of people, they take things that other people work for, you know it's just not right," Chandler said.
Chandler says they lost two bikes the first time around. They lost another pair of wheels in a second burglary, three days later.
"They threw this one through this glass, I had bikes in here in a display case," Chandler said, holding the rock.
There are bits of glass on the floor as another reminder of the break-ins at Riders Ready, which is out $6,000 to $7,000 as a result.
Both stores have beefed up security. Arkansas Cycling and Fitness installed those cameras and added motion sensors. Riders Ready plans to get cameras. They've also enhanced motion sensors and put a devise on the front door that will immediately trigger an alarm if anything strikes it.
The third store broken into recently is Chainwheel in Little Rock. No bikes were actually stolen there but the shop had a shattered front door and window box.
Little Rock police are investigating the cases its way. North Little Rock Police was able to confirm one of the burglaries at Riders Ready; we plan to get more information from them on Monday.