Naperville Bicycle Shops Hit by Burglaries

Naperville Bicycle Shops
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A wave of burglaries touching down in the suburbs is prompting local bicycle stores to take precautions.

Naperville police say there have been two recent bike shop burglaries in town, one on January 12 and another on January 13.

“None of the bikes have been located so speculating about what is happening to them is premature,” said Cmdr. Michaus Williams, Naperville Police Department. “We have nothing from conclusive that would tell us that these burglaries are connected and, of course, the speculation is that they might be.”

What Happened?

Endure It! Sports, a small boutique bicycle shop in Naperville, found that roughly $70,000 worth of bicycles went missing after someone broke in on January 12.

“I got a call from the Naperville PD that around 7:30 there was a broken window and it obviously looked like we’d been hit,” owner Erik Walter said.

Walter said that when he returned to the store, he found 12 bikes were missing. “They didn’t touch anything else,” he said.

Williams said a second bike shop in town, Spokes, was also burglarized. However in that case, no bikes were taken. The owner of the store declined to comment.

Walter said the burglary has hit his business hard. “We’re a smaller boutique shop that deals exclusively in bikes over $3,000,” he said.

The supply shortage that comes with doing business in a pandemic doesn’t help matters either. “Right now, there’s such a hang-up in availability of bikes because of COVID,” Walter said. “Supply is really, really low. So, it’s been almost impossible to get bikes from distributors. These are obviously hot-ticket items.”

Moving Forward

Walter said he’s boarded up the windows at his bicycle shop as a precaution.

Trek Bicycle, another bicycle shop in Naperville, has taken similar steps hoping to deter crime, but it’s not been hit in the recent wave of bicycle shop burglaries.

“Due to the ongoing theft in the bicycle industry, we’ve decided to board up our windows and acquire extra security,” a voicemail recording states.

Naperville News 17’s Megann Horstead reports.

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