A MOREE motorcycle business owner is calling for the Moree community to speak out over the spate of thefts in the area, including another three bikes stolen at the weekend.
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“We’ve been broken into four times in a month, with two quad bikes and a motocross bike stolen,” the owner of Thomas Lee Motorcycles, Col Thomas, said yesterday.
“It’s pretty disappointing. Someone must know something.”
Mr Thomas said the latest incident, overnight on January 2, in which the offenders used a stolen quad bike to ram-raid the front doors of the Frome St business and stole a Honda CRF450 motocross bike would cost the business thousands in lost time, extra insurance premiums and upgrades to state-of-the-art security systems.
“It’s just something you don’t need as a business. It will bump up our insurance premiums and we’ve had to upgrade our security at a cost to us also,” Mr Thomas said.
His business was one of three targeted in a crime spree by an unknown number of offenders on January 2 and 3 in Moree, with another business on Greenbah Rd broken into the following night.
Entry was also attempted to a third business in Joyce St on January 3, and a resident at a private home who owned motorcyles in South Moree was also disturbed by intruders attempting entry about 2.30am.
Police have since recovered two quad bikes and a trail bike, two of the vehicles belonging to Thomas Lee.
The business was also broken into on December 7 with two front windows valued at $4000 smashed, again on December 20 when the offenders dismantled part of a fence, and two days later on December 22 when padlocks were cut.
Meanwhile another three bikes were stolen at the weekend, described as a 2001 red Honda 80 motorbike with racing stickers, a 2010 Japanese model 125 motor bike and a white Yamaha YZF250 trail bike.
Barwon Local Area Command Superintendent Jenny Hayes said thieves were going to great lengths to identify the locations of trail and quad bikes at residences and businesses in order to steal them at a later date.
The stolen bikes were then used for joyrides and for future crimes.
“Moree police are employing a number of strategies to identify and target offenders but they also need the assistance of the community,”Superintendent Hayes said.
“If you see suspicious activity in your neighbourhood or see strangers in your street looking at garages, looking down driveways or over fences, then call police”.
