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Dirt Bike Thieves Forced To Leave Empty Handed

OPA-LOCKA (CBSMiami) – A group of would-be dirt bike thieves didn't get very far when they attempted to break into an Opa-locka warehouse.

Early Thursday morning, they used a stolen Ford F150 to try to smash through the door of a warehouse unit at 3970 NW 132nd Street. Police say several friends rent the unit to store their dirt bikes.

The warehouse has been broken into the same way three times in the last five years. The last time it happened, metal poles were installed in front of the doors to prevent it from happening again.

Thursday morning they worked and would be thieves left empty-handed.

This was just the latest in a rash of break-ins, where burglars used trucks to smash through the entrances of stores or storage units to steal the pricey bikes.

Last month, a truck was used to break into a western Miami-Dade motorsports store twice in less than a week.

On March 19th, the burglars cut through a fence and then used a pick up truck to smash through the back door of Gables Motorsports at 7300 Bird Road. Employees say a dozen dirt bikes were taken. A few days before on March 15th, a truck was used to smash through the front door and two bikes were stolen. An employee told CBS4 that the store was also broken in to in January and eight dirt bikes were stolen.

In the past couple of months, several other motorsports shops have been broken into by what police believe may be the same group of organized crooks.

Last February, security cameras outside Riva Motorsports in Southwest Dade caught the action as five men broke in and loaded five dirt bikes into a Ford F250. It was the same type of vehicle used in the latest break in.

Last October, a group was caught on camera stealing dirt bikes from Dos Reis Motorsports in Doral and Broward Motorsports in Fort Lauderdale on the same morning.

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