Courtesy of Winter Park Fraser Police Department
Police are investigating eight stolen bikes worth more than $30,000 that disappeared last week from the Fraser Valley.
Six of the bikes were reported missing or stolen to the Fraser Winter Park Police Department on July 22 and 23. Another two bikes were reported stolen to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
“They all occurred in the same time frame and the majority of them were very high-end bicycles, so … we believe it’s a pattern,” said Fraser Winter Park Police Chief Glen Trainor.
Trainor said they are currently trying to identify a potential suspect who was spotted by video cameras in the Iron Horse Resort garage. Otherwise, it is unclear if there was a single perpetrator or if the bikes were stolen by a group of people working together.
The thefts occurred in two distinct areas, one being Winter Park Resort and another being the Vasquez Street garage area.
While the Mountain Bike National Championship was in town during the thefts, only one report involved someone competing in the races, Trainor said. The others were locals or visitors who reported their bikes stolen from parking or personal garages.
Only two of the reported missing bikes were locked up when they were taken. The others were unsecured on the back of cars or at bike racks.
Unusually, other bikes and expensive items in the areas of the thefts were left untouched, Trainor said.
“Lock your stuff up, but secondly if you have items of value, they should be brought in to your residence or condominium,” Trainor said. “Things like padlocks and cables can be defeated very easily.”
Anyone with information on the missing bikes or the identity of the suspect should call the Fraser Winter Park Police Department at 970-722-7779 or Grand County Dispatch at 970-725-3343.