U-Haul truck repeatedly rams into downtown L.A. bike shop in failed burglary attempt

Noah Goldberg
·2 min read
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LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 9, 2024 - Danny Farahirad, co-owner of Just Ride L.A., stands outside the damaged part of his business where thieves used a U-Haul truck to plow through the steel gate into the parking lot before trying to ram their way into the brick building in downtown Los Angeles on January 9, 2023. The attempted robbery occurred early last Saturday morning and the thieves could not breach the business. Farahirad says that there could be up to $40,000 in damages. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Danny Farahirad, co-owner of Just Ride L.A., stands outside his business on Tuesday, where thieves used a U-Haul truck to plow through the steel gate into the parking lot early Saturday before a failed effort to ram their way into the brick building in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

More than a dozen would-be burglars attempted to break into the storage room of a downtown LosAngeles bike shop over the weekend by repeatedly ramming a U-Haul truck into the wall of the facility.

The attempted burglary occurred at Just Ride L.A., a bicycle shop located near the corner of South Hill Street and Venice Boulevard, around 6 a.m. Saturday, according to store co-owner Danny Farahirad.

“My guys were like, ‘Hey, someone rammed a truck ... they just kept ramming the U-Haul through our gate,’” he said. “There were 16 people. They were somewhat organized.”

Security video shows the U-Haul truck driving straight through the closed gate into the shop’s parking lot, ripping the gate from its hinges.

A crew of people who appear to be with the drivers of the U-Haul are seen descending on the lot as the van then repeatedly crashes into the back of the bike store, but they fail to get into the storage area.

Farahirad said about $40,000 in damage was done to the shop. Just Ride L.A. will have to buy a new rolling gate, awning and light fixture, he said.

Farahirad said that the damage from the attempted burglary was just another blow in what’s already been the bike shop’s “slowest year in history.”

He said sales had been sluggish since mid-2022, after a surge in e-bike purchases earlier in the COVID pandemic.

“This doesn’t help,” he said.

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Other Southern California bicycle stores have also been victims of crime recently. Two people were arrested in March on allegations of participating in numerous bike shop robberies.

And in September, an estimated $40,000 in merchandise was stolen from a bike shop in Irwindale.

It was not the first time that Just Ride L.A. has been hit by thieves, Farahirad said: It was once the target of an armed robbery, and about 10 bikes have been stolen since the shop opened in 2008.

If the would-be burglars had gotten in on Saturday, Farahirad said, tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise could have been stolen.

No arrests have been made. Plainclothes detectives visited the shop Tuesday, but Farahirad said he had little hope that police would be able to capture the people responsible for the attempted burglary.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.