Police search for masked men who stole 16 motorbikes from home

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — Police are investigating after 16 motorbikes were reportedly stolen from a home in Bloomfield Township.

Four men wearing masks were caught on surveillance video entering the garage of a home near Bingham and 14 Mile roads sometime between 5 and 6 a.m. July 3, reportedly stealing 16 racing bikes worth approximately $100,000.

Bloomfield Township Police Lt. Dan Brown said the resident, who was out of town at the time of the heist, received a security alert on his phone and called police shortly after.

“His Ring doorbell camera system said a motion detector went off inside the garage, so he pulled it up on his phone and he witnessed four subjects inside of his garage removing dirt bike motorcycles,” Brown explained. “By the time he gets the alert, he calls the police and we get dispatched, several bikes were stolen, at that point. We processed the scene, took care of business, secured the property, and several hours later, they came back and stole several more. He had 25 or 26 dirt bikes, but 16 ended up being stolen.”

The homeowner had posted the video on his personal YouTube channel online, which was shared thousands of times before he decided to take it down.

“At one point, it had over 1,000 views, which is not necessarily a good thing, because bad guys see that kind of stuff, and they know that police are investigating it. It’s out there now, so they are certainly going to get rid of the bikes sooner than later,” Brown said.

Days after the theft, the motor bikes were caught on surveillance footage being driven in Detroit.

“I know for certain these bikes are being taken for a joyride in Detroit, because we have them on some security cameras. The problem is there are no good shots of the faces. They’ve got helmets on, so it’s very difficult to determine who these people are, unfortunately,” Brown added. “We’re trying to gather some intel so, hopefully, we can identify a couple of them.”

Although the suspects were caught on surveillance footage, it’s been difficult to identify them.

“These suspects do a pretty good job of covering their faces and whatnot, so it’s very difficult to identify who they are,” said Brown. “We are certainly looking out for leads from the community. We’ve gotten some tips, but nothing substantial quite yet.”

Police urge the public to use caution when posting things for sale online.

“The homeowner advertised the bikes for sale on Facebook Marketplace, so what he told us was, if somebody does inquire, he will bring the one particular bike they inquire about outside so they don’t see how many he has, and if they buy it, fine; if they don’t buy it, fine. It sounds like he may have had somebody looking at four of them, so our assumption is the suspects knew there were at least four bikes in the garage, and when they broke in, they hit the jackpot when there were five times that many,” said Brown.

Bloomfield Township police also encourage residents to take advantage of the department’s Vacation House Watch program — notifying police of any planned vacations so officers can periodically check the exterior of the residence while residents are away — by calling (248) 433-7755.