Bicycles, moped stolen from Belfast rental shop

BELFAST – City police are investigating the theft of a dozen bicycles and a moped from the One Stop Bike Shop on Main Street.

Patrolman Howard Dakin said the theft was reported by owner Tim Murphy when he arrived at work Sunday morning. Although the equipment had been secured by a locked cable, the thieves cut through it.

It happened sometime after 5 p.m. and before 8 a.m., Dakin said Sunday.

Murphy said he was surprised that such a brazen theft took place in Belfast. He said he had been keeping his rental bikes in the shop’s dooryard since he opened last year. He said they never were disturbed until this incident.

“I’m kind of speechless, this happening in Belfast,” said Murphy. “I could see it in some place like New York, but not here.”

Murphy speculated that it took a minimum of two people with a truck to make off with his property. He said the moped weighed 300 pounds and it was likely that two people would be needed to lift it to the back of a truck.

Murphy said the equipment was insured, but that a 1967 Schwinn tandem bicycle was probably irreplaceable.

“That had family value,” he said. “I had that in my family for years.”