Roughly $3,000 worth of equipment was stolen from a North Park bicycle shop early Sunday morning, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Chuck Cofer recently took over Adams Avenue Bikes located on the street of the same name three months ago. He has worked for the company for more than five years.
“I’m pretty upset about it,” Cofer told NBC 7. “I’m still trying to digest everything that’s going on and what exactly I’ve lost and how I’m going to recover from it, so it’s a pretty big deal for me.”
At around 3:30 a.m., Cofer was alerted by his security system of suspicious activity at his store. He could view the surveillance footage remotely.
“I couldn’t see much going on there, so I just jumped in my car and got up to the shop as soon as possible,” he said.
When Cofer arrived, the police were already at the scene.
“There was some broken glass, so I knew something had happened, and sure enough, we had a break in,” Cofer said.
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The suspects took three laps around the block where the store is located, Cofer said. The first lap, they checked the bike shop out. The second lap, they reportedly broke the storefront glass window, possibly to see what alarm systems were in place. And during the last lap, Cofer said they took three bikes.
Cofer described the suspects’ car as a four-door pickup.
The three bikes taken were valued at roughly $2,000 to $3,000 in total, according to Cofer. He said the cost of replacing the plate glass window and reevaluating his security system will end up being “a pretty expensive deal.”
The bike shop manager said the surrounding businesses have been great through this scary situation.
“The neighbors are all really great, and every one of them seems to, honestly, be as concerned or as gutted about this as me, the business owner is, so that does make me feel good on a lot of levels,” Cofer said.
Now, Cofer said he hopes getting his message out there will help him and others in the area.
“I felt like letting everybody know what’s going on would probably be a good way to probably get these guys caught,” he said.
Cofer told NBC 7 that this has been the fourth incident like this in his five years with Adams Avenue Bikes. The last smash-and-grab happened six months ago, and in that case, the bike was recovered and the suspect was arrested, according to Cofer.
