Police investigating if man arrested in bike shop burglary is connected to other break-ins

SALT LAKE CITY — Police arrested a man over the weekend in connection to a bike shop burglary.

And that has some hoping it is a possible breakthrough in a rash of bike shop burglaries in Salt Lake City that have frustrated and plagued owners for weeks. 

Early Sunday morning, Salt Lake City police were called to the Rad Power Bikes shop at 2107 S. 700 East on a possible burglary.

Investigators say they caught Ryan Brenner, 38,  in the act of trying to steal bikes. 

The question for investigators is — could he be the one behind a rash of bike shop burglaries. KSL TV has found about a half a dozen shops being hit, many of them multiple times in the last several weeks. 

Burglaries connected?

KSL obtained surveillance video from a couple of different shops showing the break-ins that all looked similar. A man breaking out the front window, quickly grabbing a bike and other merchandise and heading out the way he came in. 

“Still too early to say if this suspect is connected to all the recent burglaries that we’ve seen,” said Brent Weisburg, spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Police Department. 

Cyrusher Bike Shop in Sugar House has been hit four times since early vOctober losing thousands of dollars in equipment and merchandise. The stores surveillance video shows the burglar busting out the window and grabbing bikes. 

‘It cost us a lot’

“I’m hoping it’s him [who police arrested]. It’s been disheartening and hard,” said Jared Sorensen, store manager. “It’s cost us a lot of time. It’s cost us a lot of money and we’ve had to do a lot of things to make it better. I don’t wish it upon any business whether they are our competitors or not.” 

Mark Garnder, who owns the Sport Den at Foothill Village Shopping Center in Salt Lake City,  says he’s been at his current location since 1988 and never had to deal with anything like this. He says he’s been hit twice. In one of those incidents, a bike worth $8,000 was taken.

“It’s just super frustrating as a business owner. We are working six, seven days a week. We put our heart and souls into running a small business, locally owned and people don’t realize the impact,” Gardner said. 

According to police, one of the e-bikes stolen at one shop alone was worth $14,000. 

“We understand the frustration that (these bike shops have) gone through. This is not just something that we take lightly. We understand that there is a real financial impact to these businesses. Many are small businesses in our community trying to thrive,” Weisburg said.