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<\/p>\nBarry Slights says every night the alarms don\u2019t go off is a small victory.<\/p>\n
The manager of a Pedego e-bike shop in Denver\u2019s Golden Triangle said the business faced a string of break-ins this summer, resulting in thousands of dollars of lost inventory and physical damage. On another occasion, during business hours, one of his employees was assaulted by a man wielding a chain.<\/p>\n
Surveillance video recorded it all.<\/p>\n
Two miles to the west, at FattE-Bikes, owner Kenny Fischer said he\u2019s taken to sleeping at the company\u2019s production facility some nights in the hopes of stopping thieves. He did just that one night. On another occasion, he tracked down a stolen bike himself.<\/p>\n
Both men believe their shops were hit by the same thieves. A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department would say only that the incidents are under investigation, and that no arrests have been made.<\/p>\n
The brazen thefts speak to the popularity of e-bikes. And the repetition is getting old.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith e-bike popularity right now, they can turn around and sell them in seconds,\u201d Slights said. \u201cI think the police are overstretched with everything. I\u2019m not expecting miracles, but there\u2019s clearly a record with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s changed our operations \u2026 let alone the sleepless nights and paranoia, constantly checking the cameras,\u201d Fischer said. \u201cInsurance doesn\u2019t solve trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pedego had been robbed once at a previous temporary location, next to the Starbucks at 575 Lincoln St. But earlier this year, the shop moved to 929 Bannock St., on the ground floor of Greystar\u2019s Parq on Speer building earlier this year.<\/p>\n
It has since been robbed twice within a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn general this is a very expensive building. The rent here is stupid,\u201d Slights said. \u201cWe\u2019re in such an ideal place you wouldn\u2019t expect it. It\u2019s not a run-down neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to its website, the cheapest available apartment in Parq building is a 545-square-foot studio for $1,742 a month. The most expensive available unit, a three-bedroom, is $11,385 a month.<\/p>\n
Slights said the first robbery happened on June 14, when a thief smashed the storefront windows and snatched a bike.<\/p>\n
On July 3, two people \u2014 one of whom Slights believes to be the same guy as June \u2014 hit the store again. He now goes to sleep every night anticipating the store will be hit again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Slights said. \u201cWe use more locks, we\u2019re putting up gates \u2026 but even then he goes through it. It slows him down 10 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the robbers have stolen four bikes, three batteries and some other hand-held equipment, totaling $12,000 lost in inventory. Replacing the smashed window twice has cost the store about $35,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cE-Bikes are where the money is, they\u2019re in such high demand,\u201d Slights said. \u201cLuckily we can survive it \u2026 but for some people, it\u2019s going to cripple them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theft isn\u2019t the only problem. Last week, one of Slight\u2019s employees, Michael Fritz, was assaulted by a man who entered the store and started yelling. Video surveillance shows the man striking Fritz, leaving the store and coming back armed with a chain, which he repeatedly swings at Fritz.<\/p>\n
Fritz said the man had an ankle monitor. Slights said he hasn\u2019t received an update from Denver police about the robberies, but the department seems to be more proactive about finding the attacker.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just two miles away on the other side of Interstate 25, in the Sun Valley, Fischer has spent restless nights sleeping in his store after a string of June robberies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost a lot of sleep, pacing the warehouse as if I was a trained security guard,\u201d the owner of FattE-Bikes said. \u201cI knew I was taking serious risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fischer said the company\u2019s store and production facility at 2596 W. Barberry Place was first hit by robbers on June 1.<\/p>\n
After the first incident, Fischer said he immediately started bulking up security. The robbers returned on June 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they do is hit you really quick before your cameras come in,\u201d Fischer said. \u201cThere\u2019s very little you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, Fischer said thieves tried to ram a truck into the shop\u2019s garage doors to get into the building. But he was sleeping on site and chased them off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an unprecedented tactic. In 2021,\u00a0two men drove a U-Haul through Cherry Creek\u2019s eBike USA\u00a0intending to rob it, although they left empty-handed.<\/p>\n
All in all, Fischer estimated about $20,000 in inventory was stolen. He couldn\u2019t estimate the cost of physical damage, but said it was \u201cthousands of dollars\u201d just to repair the garage doors. He\u2019s paid to rent cargo containers to block the doors and for other items such as cameras.<\/p>\n
Fischer said the store, which first opened in 2017, has been broken into before, but lately there\u2019s been an increase of \u201cblatant robberies.\u201d He said he was able to recover one bike on his own, but otherwise he believes the rest are being sold on Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a tracker on the bike and I actually stalked this person 10 miles through the city. They had no idea,\u201d Fischer said. \u201cI recovered it from a very undesirable-looking individual and got it back to my shop \u2026 at my own risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fischer recognized that car theft has also increased and bike theft has always been an issue. But he said now it\u2019s affecting small businesses, not just individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevention is difficult \u2026 you can\u2019t see things before they happen,\u201d Fischer said. \u201cIn my opinion, you can punish to the highest extent \u2026 this is a slap on the wrist, it\u2019s an insult. This is my livelihood. If there\u2019s no penalty, there\u2019s no stopping this \u2013 in fact they\u2019re encouraging it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Denver police spokesperson said the department \u201ccontinues to work on reducing the number of bicycle and e-bike thefts throughout the city\u201d and patrols more heavily in districts with crime trends.<\/p>\n
Rob Brunt, co-founder of Project 529 \u2014 an effort promoted by Denver police \u2014 said his site allows owners to register their bikes, in the hopes the information will allow them to be returned if they\u2019re stolen and later recovered.<\/p>\n
Brunt encouraged bike shop owners to register their bikes through the site, saying ownership info can be updated once bikes are sold. He said 33,000 bikes have been registered since launching in Denver this spring and 33 stolen bikes have been returned to owners.<\/p>\n