Retail Theivery: Breaking! $14,000 Worth of Bikes Stolen From Derringer Cycles!

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Not long ago, we posted that Derringer Cycles on West 3rd Street seemed to be doing pretty well despite a hard-hit retail economy. Turns out Derringer—maker of 1920s-inspired pedal-able bike-slash-motorcycles—was hit hard this week with a robbery early Wednesday morning around 2am in which the assailants got away with four bikes, each worth $3,500-$4,000, or somewhere between $14,000-$16,000 total. The following is an account from owner Adrian Anz:

"They broke through a back fence, broke through a steel door, and as the alarm was going off—it is deafeningly loud—broke through another security door behind that. Once in they took the time to remove four bikes which is no small task, they dragged two with the clutch out I can see the skid marks. We now have had to weld the rear door closed to feel secure. We have also installed wireless cameras and are upgrading the front bars. I have no idea what they intend to do with them, each one is completely unique, and they are pretty conspicuous on the road."

The four stolen bikes are shown in the photo gallery; he is offering a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest. He told Racked that he spoke with ABC7 news, which asked him if he'd be OK on camera, said they would call back and never did. A Derringer customer, whose bike was stolen in the robbery (he was scheduled to pick it up that morning) says the news outlet "decided not to do the story because they didn't want to portray the area as unsafe." Anz has heard of other incidents in the area: "Did you hear that there was an armed robbery down the street as well? I think it was about two weeks ago...the frequency of crime alert e-mails from the West 3rd St Business Association has definitely gone up recently."

Anz is particularly upset about the loss of two bikes which were prototypes, and thusly, "their value was obviously much higher to me financially and emotionally, but the insurance company will not accept my receipt for busted knuckles." He is able to keep a sense of humor however. In an email to Racked, he wrote: "One more thing, Nicole Richie was in our store the day of the break-in, but police have not named her as a suspect at this time. :)"
· Hard Retail Times: But Derringer Doing Well [Racked]