LEE COUNTY, Fla. — A local business owner had thousands of dollars worth of electric bikes stolen at his business, Green Bikes, over the weekend.
Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is working with Lee County deputies to solve the crime.
Investigators say the theft happened from his store inside the Flamingo Island Flea Market. He says you can find anything from antiques, and pottery, to electric bikes.
However, after speaking with the owner of the E-bikes company, Rene Chavez, he had thousands of dollars worth of electric bikes stolen from his business and he thinks quote “the thieves had this planned.”
He says it is upsetting and it impacts his livelihood.
Chavez says “I’m a disabled veteran retired trying to do a little business and to get robbed like this puts me back a long way if not take me out altogether”.
He says after deputies showed him how the crime happened.
Deputies told him a unit was broken into then the electric bikes were taken through the backyard of another property.
Chavez believes it was planned.
“It takes time to take that many bikes through the woods," he said. "It takes more than one person; they have to have, like, a truck to put them on. They looked at the whole arrangement and they figured out a way how they can do it, and it was a lot easier than I could’ve ever imagined."
Trish Routte with Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers says, "They definitely had a layout of the land which tells us again it’s probably somebody local they’ve been there before they knew how to get in and out.
Routte says the bikes could possibly be sold online so if you know anything about this crime call Southwest Florida Crime stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.
