Rare gold Aurum Magma among multiple bikes stolen in latest professional raid on bike shop, after four "Mission Impossible-style" burglary attempts last year left police questioning "inside job"

A Northamptonshire bike shop which was targeted four times in highly professional "Mission Impossible-style" raids last year has been hit with yet another burglary, a high-value Aurum Magma and other bikes taken after criminals drilled through a workshop door, broke through a second door and smashed alarms off the wall during a "very quick" and organised overnight break-in.

The Gorilla Firm, an Oundle-based bike shop that specialises in bespoke builds, was the victim of four attempted burglaries in 2024. During one successful attempt the burglars cut their way into the building's staff toilet from below and somehow evaded the company's motion sensor CCTV by crawling across the floor, before "clearing out" the shop's SRAM componentry and power meters.

Such was the "surreal" professionalism of the "Mission Impossible-style" break-in — which CCTV footage suggested was the result of a detailed and brazen reconnaissance mission carried out in the weeks prior — the police even questioned if the burglary was an inside job.

> Are bike shop burglaries becoming more professional? Owner says shop was hit four times by "Mission Impossible-style" raids – and claims police asked if break-in was "inside job"

Now, Gorilla Firm has again been targeted, a rare gold Aurum Magma with gold Princeton CarbonWorks wheels and SRAM Red taken in another highly organised and "very quick" raid in the early hours of Tuesday morning (4 February).

Other bikes were taken, The Gorilla Firm telling road.cc: "They drilled through our workshop door to gain access and then broke through the secondary door.

The burglars then "used a crowbar to smash the alarm off the wall and stole a few bikes". "They were very quick in and out and made a beeline for the Aurum, they knew exactly where it was and I think we have CCTV of one of the guys scoping out the shop a week before," Justine, The Gorilla Firm's co-owner explained.

The high-value and rare gold bike was a blinged-up model from Aurum, the bike brand founded by former pro cyclists Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso, and the gold model in question was displayed at the Rouleur Live show in November.

It has been a scarcely believable 12 months for the Northamptonshire bike shop who faced repeat burglaries in 2024, to the extent that one police officer even questioned whether one of the break-ins was an "inside job". The Gorilla Firm faced four attempted burglaries, one in February successful and seeing criminals "clear out" SRAM components and power meters.

"Back in February [2024], my husband came into work, no alarms had been set off or anything, and as he walked into the building, he realised he was walking on grit and gravel, and there was a massive draft," Justine told road.cc last year.

"And he went into the backroom and there was a huge bloody hole in the floor! The closer he looked, he realised someone had been in the storeroom and basically cleared us out of all our SRAM groupsets and power meters, very high-end stuff. They knew exactly what they were looking for, they knew exactly where it was, and they knew that the storeroom didn't have CCTV inside.

"When we went back to look at all the CCTV, initially we couldn't see anything at all. Our CCTV is motion sensor – and they came in and slid across our floor at the pace of a snail into our cupboard, and turned the light on in the cupboard.

"And all I could see was a flash of light which activated the CCTV, and that was what alerted me to it. Further along I could just see someone's legs and hands dragging a bright red SRAM box. And there was another bit of footage where I could see someone lying face-down on the floor of our workshop pointing their camera flashlight up at our alarm system.

"It was absolutely bizarre. And the reason they didn't take more than they did, is because where they broke in there are lots of plumbing pipes. So even though they managed to squeeze in, they could only take small things out. It was all so surreal, it was very Mission Impossible-style stuff."

One particularly awful aspect of the ordeal was that "they'd obviously been in the shop" and the break-ins were the result of detailed and brazen reconnaissance missions, Justine believing the criminals responsible were potentially prospective customers that they had "invited in, shown around, made a coffee, and talked to them about a bike build".

"They had no intention of being a customer, and came back and robbed us. What we found afterwards – we're on a wharf and there's a restaurant beside us – the weekend before they broke in, they'd removed all the cameras from the Tap and Kitchen Restaurant that we're pointing towards our building, so nothing was caught on their cameras. It was a really professional job. There was nothing on any of the exterior CCTV, it was just bizarre."

The Gorilla Firm "beefed up" their alarm system and changed cameras but in May nearby exterior CCTV had been smashed, all wiring to the building was cut and "they then climbed on top of the roof and tried to saw through our ceiling to get in, which obviously set off the alarm."

"There was another time when my husband disturbed them when he came in early for work at half four in the morning," Justine continued. "As he walked into the workshop, he felt grit underfoot. And again, they had broken into the empty unit and used a reciprocating saw to get through the wall into the workshop, but had been disturbed so fled.

“It's mental though, the effort and lengths they've been going to get in and steal stuff."

The police didn't find any forensics and officers even questioned "if it was an inside job".

Justine said: "I just don't think the police are interested, they don't really care. As far as they were concerned, it's a crime, but they didn't take that much, our insurance took care of it – but they're not seeing a wider pattern. And there certainly is a wider pattern, as so many bike shops are being broken into."

That wider pattern has now resulted in The Gorilla Firm again being targeted a year on from the first of the five burglary attempts, but also included another professional raid we reported on last year at C6 Bikes in Cambridgeshire.

Owner Steve Heathcock said, "If you told me the SAS did this, I'd believe you". That after his business was hit by a targeted raid that saw a 10m-high roof scaled, internet wires cut, access gained by a "super precise" cut to an exterior wall, complex alarms disabled, and £200,000 of stock stolen, all without the perpetrators leaving a trace or any CCTV footage.