NORTH READING, MASS. (WHDH) - Police are investigating after thieves smashed into a motorsports store in North Reading with a van and made off with several expensive motocross bikes.
Security footage at North Reading Motorsports caught a U-Haul van ramming through the store’s glass doors on Saturday morning, giving a group of thieves an opening to grab several high-end motocross bikes.
Owner Fred Spinazzola shared the footage with 7NEWS, which showed the masked suspects as they caused nearly $100,000 in damage to his building before taking off with the bikes he recently received from Japan.
“They’re coming in during these times when we can’t get the product we really need to provide the income for our families,” Spinazzola said. “And when we do get them and we have the opportunity to make a few bucks on them, they’re taken away from us.”
Police said just an hour before the break-in, what may have been the same group attempted a similar stunt at another shop, Cycles 128 in Beverly. They were caught scanning the space on surveillance cameras.
Investigators are also looking into whether a break-in at the Pike Cycles shop in Allston is connected.
“It is a devastating blow at a point where we’re already down,” said owner Zachary Richards.
Richards said he came into his store Thursday morning to find a glass window broken and six recently imported scooters and a dirt bike gone.
“Its the coolest thing since Nikes – its like if you have an imported bike, you are the kid that everyone is talking about on the block,” he told 7NEWS.
A police officer driving by the North Reading scene reportedly tried to stop the group Saturday, but the suspects were able to ride away. Police called off the chase after the suspects refused to stop, drove erratically and at a high rate of speed.
Detectives believe the people behind the thefts have operated in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for months, and that they are street racers who have used the bikes to torment neighborhoods everywhere.
“They need to hear about the people that got caught and how they get put in jail,” Spinazzola said. “Consequences for it… there’s been none.”
Investigators said six people in total were involved in the North Reading theft and that the U-Haul used was stolen.
Police found a black SUV in Lawrence with a stolen registration believed to be connected to the incident and found a missing motorbike inside. The U-Haul was also found in Lawrence on Tuesday, July 12.
Anyone with information is asked to call the North Reading Police Department at 978-664-3131.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)