The Newton, Wales branch of Freestyle (previously known as Wadhurst Country Services) was raided on New Year's Day.
Sue Port of Freestyle explains:
"12 off road bikes and 15 helmets were taken between the hours of 10pm and 2.30am. Familiar story, but with a twist. You see the building is not only covered by CCTV and alarmed, it also has a smoke cloak. So what went wrong?"The raiders first arrived at 10pm on 1st Jan. CCTV picked them up turning into the estate, the cameras then picked them up smashing their way into a building through a wall in exactly the right spot so that they came in next to the bikes. Without anyone coming into the building, they hooked them out through the hole one by one after knocking them all over for ease of access. The alarms did not go off. An hour later the outside camera picked them up leaving the estate.
"4 hours later they were recorded returning to the estate and smashing another hole in the other side of the building, having first knocked off the outside camera. Again exactly in the right place to get another six bikes out without entering the building. Still no alarms. They now got cocky and entered the building to help themselves to the line up of helmets along the same wall, they kept close to the clothing along the wall but on the third visit in they must have stepped further into the building because at 2.50am the alarms went off and the smoke cloak came down. They scarpered.
"When the alarm company came out they found there was nothing wrong with the sensors, but the coverage on them is not what the manufacturer had indicated and there is a corridor along the walls that is not covered. So the perpetrators had obviously been into the shop and checked out where the sensors were and what they covered. This was not an inside job, we have not been open long enough to have disgruntled ex-employees and we can trust our current small workforce.
"So I would advise all traders to check the coverage of their alarm sensors, with £60k of stock taken, increased insurance premiums and the associated headaches, our alarm company is certainly going to be checking all our premises. Having alarms etc is fine if they work."