Two people smashed through a double-glass door to Surdyke Motorsports, 1305 Hwy. 61, in Crystal City and stole two dirt bikes and an ATV. The theft occurred about 3:25 a.m. July 3, Crystal City Police Chief Chad Helms said.
It was the second theft at a Twin City-area motorcycle dealership in an eight-day period. On June 25, two motorcycles were stolen and two others were damaged at Gold Star Harley-Davidson, 2435 Hwy. 67, south of Festus.
“The only thing that was similar (with Gold Star) was that they smashed in the front door,” said Stuart McMillian, Surdyke Motor Sports spokesman.
At Surdyke Motorsports, a 2017 Yamaha dirt bike, a 2018 Yamaha dirt bike and a 2019 Yamaha Raptor ATV were stolen. Together, the three vehicles were valued at $20,000. On Saturday (July 6), the ATV was recovered in Jennings by St. Louis County Police, Helms said.
He said surveillance footage showed two people use a brick to break the glass doors and then spend about three minutes stealing the three vehicles. The two people were wearing long-sleeve shirts with hoods covering their faces.
Helms said the two loaded the three vehicles onto a black V-front, box-style trailer attached to a late 1990s-model, white Ford F-150. The trailer appeared to have damage on one side.
In the theft at Gold Star Harley-Davidson, three suspects, who were wearing helmets, used a rock to smash the glass front door to the business and steal the two motorcycles from the showroom and damaged the other two motorcycles while trying to steal them, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Together, the two stolen motorcycles were valued at $55,000. Damage to the other two motorcycles was estimated at $8,000, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Grant Bissell said.
Helms said while the methods to steal the bikes were similar, he could not confirm the same people were involved in both incidents.
“We are actively speaking with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to collect information and see if it could be related,” Helms said.
Anyone with information about the two incidents should call Crystal City Police at 636-937-4601 or the Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.