It's hard enough operating a business these days, but when you have to worry about Gone In 60 Seconds-style smash-and-grab thefts, well, then it becomes even more difficult. But that's exactly what occurred in a West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, motorcycle dealership earlier this month when a group of thieves broke in and made off with a host of dirt bikes in under five minutes.
The theft took place from Appleyard Motorcycles in Keighley, which is just outside of Leeds. According to a report from our friends at MCN, seven individuals used a Nissan Juke—when was the last time you heard of one of those?—to reverse ram their way into the dealership. From there, an angle grinder equipped with a cutting wheel was used to get all the way into the dealership.
CCTV within the dealership then shows the group hauling off around 10 dirt bikes, including multiple Husqvarnas, and throwing them into an awaiting Ford Transit van. As we can all remember from our classic Top Gear watching, the Transit has been, and always will be, the tool of choice for thieves everywhere. And based on the footage, it's easy to see why.
According to MCN, "The stolen haul consisted entirely of Husqvarna machinery – namely a 2025 FC450, two 2026 TE250s, two 2026 TE125s, a 2025 TC85, two 2026 FE450s – one fitted with an Akrapovič exhaust – and a used 2023 FE350." All in, that's about £80,000-worth of machinery, or just over $106,000. However, that number is likely set to increase, according to one of the sales managers who spoke with the outlet off the record.
The dealership also "registered the bikes as stolen and locked the ECUs on applicable models, while also removing all competition motorcycles from the premises," to both help aid the constabulary, as well as hedge against the thieves coming back and snatching the rest of them. Viewings on trials, enduro, and off-road models, however, have been changed to by-appointment-only, which tells me the dealership thinks someone came in, scoped the joint, and then hatched the plan.
The police force, however, is on the case.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Atkinson told MCN, "Extensive enquiries, including CCTV, are underway to track down the people responsible. The CCTV shows the offense taking place. If anyone recognises the suspects in the images, please come forward and provide information. We are also keen to speak to anyone who might have seen these bikes up for sale on marketplaces on social media."
Will they get the motorcycles back? Unclear, as everyone involved was wearing masks, and they were in and out pretty darn quickly. As to anyone selling these bikes on Facebook Marketplace, while you can never count out the stupidity of people, it'd be pretty dumb to try and do that so soon after the theft occurred. It'd basically be a blaring neon billboard saying, "I DID IT!" But again, dumb people exist in vast quantities.
