Corinne and Michael Besler were cleaning up all day Thursday after a thief drove a large construction forklift into their Broadmead Village electric-bike store overnight and left with four bikes valued at about $16,000.
Corinne Besler said they were alerted to the incident about 1:15 a.m. by the store alarm at Ride the Glide and “high-tailed it down,” since they live fairly close by.
They arrived to find that two-thirds of the front window had been smashed in the shop, which they have run for just over a year.
Corinne said the intruder loaded bikes onto a pallet and picked it up with the forklift, then made his way out of the parking lot.
She said she is sure he knew what he was looking for.
“He didn’t go after anything else — he didn’t try to get into the till, he didn’t go after any of the accessories.”
As the forklift was leaving the lot, Michael figured out what was happening and gave chase in his vehicle.
With the bounce from the forklift’s big tires, the bikes were starting to fall off, so the suspect stopped in the middle of Royal Oak Drive and got out.
“He was trying to get away on foot with a couple of the bikes,” Corinne said. “He was trying to ride one of them.”
Michael exited his vehicle at that point and caught up to the suspect, pushing at him to try to get him off the bike.
“He kind of nicked the curb and fell down, then he took off,” Corinne said.
Police found the man in bushes in a nearby field with help from a police dog.
The suspect sustained injuries as he fled and during the arrest, and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The forklift was determined to have been taken from a work site in the 4500-block of Elk Lake Drive, and was returned to its owner.
B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office has been notified because of the suspect’s injuries.
The bikes were recovered, but all four are badly damaged, said Corinne, adding there was also a lot of debris left in the store.
“We’ve been dealing with the aftermath,” she said. “We’re going to do our best to have some semblance of normality, and we’re having people rally around us.”
