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Rare Bicycle Stolen In Brazen Theft From Auburn Bike Shop

AUBURN (CBS13) — A rare bicycle costing nearly $9,000 was stolen in broad daylight from an Auburn bike shop just minutes after a customer took it for a test ride.

Only three of the bikes exist in Northern California, and these brazen thieves actually came into the shop and spoke to the employees before committing the crime.

"To run up to the front of the shop and take something right in front of everybody is pretty brazen," said Auburn Bike Company employee Curtis Christensen.

Surveillance video from a business near the Auburn bike company on Wednesday afternoon shows a man walking off with a bike and a white truck driving off with it in the back.

"It's a Devinci carbon bike from Canada, it's a newer brand in the U.S." Christensen said. "There's very few of them out there, extremely high end."

The stolen bike is worth well over $8,000 and is considered top of the line. It has a molded suspension made of carbon fiber.

Christensen says he and a customer had just finished taking the bike on a test ride when it disappeared.

"So we had parked the bike right here after the customer's test ride, and had just walked back in the doorway and closed the door for a minute," he said.

That's when a couple of guys came in asking if they could ride the bike track in the back of the store. Christensen said yes, and they left saying they would be back later. But that never happened.

"They kind of rode around the block, parked their truck and one of the guys ran over here and snatched that bike in just a matter of minutes," he said. "I don't believe they knew what they took. I think they saw the flashy exotic looking bike, and I think thats kind of what they went off of."

Because the bike is special, Christensen hopes it will make it easier to spot.

"It's going to pop up somewhere, because there's just not that many of them out there," he said.

Christensen says they have filed a police report, and believe officers already have a portion of the truck's license plate.

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