A SHOP owner has hit out after burglars broke into his store and stole five bicycles.
Simon Hall, proprietor of the Bike and Secondhand Shed, in Penybryn, Wrexham, went to open his shop at 7am yesterday but found the door already partially open.
Mr Hall said: “I found the security grille off and the front door slightly open. The five bolt lock door has been jemmied off and two bikes stolen.
“That was at about 1.50am when there were two of them, then half-an-hour later they came back with a girl and took another three.
“We’ve caught them on CCTV and the police have been to look at it.
“The bikes are worth roughly £500 secondhand and it’s going to cost a good few hundred pounds to repair the damage to the shop.
“I’m expecting it to cost us about £1,000 in total.”
Mr Hall added: “We’ve got someone coming down later to try to beef up the security.
He also said the break-in had left him considering whether to keep the shop going or not.
He said: “We’ve had a couple of attempted break-ins in the past and we had a half cut bike on the shop sign, which someone climbed up and cut down.
“To be honest I’m that close to emptying the shop completely and closing it down. It’s really annoyed me.
“We don’t make a lot of money and after Christmas we turned to selling general secondhand goods to make money. But now someone has just come in and wiped us out. It’s so hard.”
A spokesman for North Wales Police said: “We had a report of a burglary at 7.12am.
“Entry was forced through the front door and a number of bikes are believed to have been taken sometime between 5pm Sunday and 7am Monday.
“Police inquiries have begun and we’re asking for any witnesses or anybody with information to contact PC 2819 Pritchard at Wrexham by calling 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”