East Austin bike shop recovering from thefts

AUSTIN, Texas - A thief was caught on camera breaking into an east Austin bike shop stealing more than $10,000 worth of bikes.

The owner of East Side Pedal Pushers says the bike shop has been hit twice in one week, and the thief is still on the run.

"It was the night before Thanksgiving, because I was out of town, actually. And I just got a text from a friend of mine," said the owner of East Side Pedal Pushers.

The owner says in the text, he was notified that Austin police were investigating a burglary at his bike shop. It happened around 2:30a.m., and it was caught on camera.

"A guy riding up, running through the little passageway there and going over towards our door, and then you can just barely see it in the frame, picks up a brick and throws it under and breaks the door, wiggles through the bars," says the owner.

He says the person took a tip jar with about $50 inside.

"Sunday night, someone, I kind of think it was the same person, but someone broke in again. My guys put some plywood on the broken window of the broken glass at the door, and they just screwed it in. It's kind of a thin piece of plywood. Anyhow, but that Sunday morning or Sunday night, someone broke in again," says the owner.

The owner says this time the thief kicked in the plywood.

"Got through the bars again, and there were five bikes stolen. And obviously, they didn’t come out through that front door because I had it locked. I don't know if they had a truck waiting or what that situation was," says the owner.

He says the suspect got away with mountain bikes and an electric bike.

"It was like an e-cargo bike and that alone was like $4,200 and then there were two full suspension mountain bikes and those were roughly $3,500 a piece retail. So, yeah, it was definitely over $10,000," says the owner.

Two of the bikes have been recovered, according to the bike shop owner.

"One of them was a friend of mine, who saw a dude riding one of the mountain bikes, and it looked kind of out of character, so to speak. And he gave me a call, and I went down and met him at Third Street. The second one I got back, a guy had bought it from a Facebook marketplace ad. He had seen our post on that, recognized the bike that he had just bought, and so he called the shop," says the owner.

The shop owner says he paid $600 to get the second bike back and has added more security to his shop since the break in.