£45,000 Worth of Bikes Stolen From Afan Trail Centre Hire Shop

£45,000 worth of bikes was stolen from the Afan trail centre in Wales in a midnight raid on Sunday.

The owners of the Afan Valley Bike Shed, Vicki Sloan, 43 and Ben Threlfall, 42, were woken by the alarm company and drove immediately to the property. They arrived 15 minutes later but by that time there was no sign of the intruders and 10 bikes and a pair of Fox forks had been stolen.

Among the losses were Ben's custom-built Transition Smuggler, seven Orange hire bikes, a Cannondale Jekyll and a Santa Cruz Chameleon. There was also damage to the back of the shop, leading the owners to think that the burglars tried to gain access that way before turning their attention to the front doors. An electrical control box for the shutters at the rear of the property had been tampered with and the owners found a length of electrical cable attached to the damaged front doors, which they believed might have been secured to a vehicle in order to gain entry.


Vicki told Wales Online, "This is the kind of thing that can sink a company and it seems to be on the up, these people now, they can be in and out in 10 minutes". In a post on social media, the shop added, "Please share with everyone you know in the biking community. Things like can shut down small independent bike shops."

A police spokesperson said: “We were called at 11.55pm on July 7 to reports of a burglary at the Afan Argoed Countryside Park. A number of high-value bikes were taken during this burglary. We believe a van was used and this van may have received some damage during the burglary.” Anyone with information should contact South Wales Police on 101