ANAHEIM, Calif. (BRAIN) — Thieves made off with Box Components products worth about $100,000 at retail in an overnight break-in at the company's headquarters here Wednesday. The theft of some pre-production mountain bike drivetrain components is causing the most headaches, said Gregorio de Haro, the company's director of sales.
The mountain bike drivetrain parts, including the Box One PushPush shifters, Box One rear derailleurs and Box Two 11-speed cassettes, were not packaged for retail sale and were intended as samples for distributors, bike manufacturers, retailers and others as the company ramped up for Box One's debut in the OE drivetrain market.
"The true value of what we lost was two months of sales opportunities," de Haro said. "That hurts the most."
The sample products had arrived in the warehouse about two weeks ago, just before de Haro and other Box employees departed for the Taichung Bike Week, a major OE sales event. Because of the trip, the company hadn't yet shipped out many of the samples. De Haro said the good news is the samples are all serial coded so will be identifiable if the thieves try to sell them (see the attached spreadsheet below for derailleur and shifter serial numbers).
"That stuff will be hard (for the thieves) to move without raising a flag," he said.
Box One production units are due to arrive in December.
The thieves broke in by cutting through a warehouse door. Security video from a neighboring building shows about five men who arrived in a Ford van, filled it with boxes and drove off, then came back a half-hour later and took another load. De Haro said it's unclear how the thieves managed to avoid setting off the company's security system. He said it's also unclear if the thieves had targeted Box or just saw an opportunity to grab some goods.
"Unfortunately, the boxes of drivetrain components were stacked right next to the door where they broke in," de Haro told BRAIN. "They would have been the first thing they saw."
In a press release, company president Toby Henderson said that "the timing of the robbery was highly suspicious, given the recent arrival of the company’s drivetrain and the selective nature of the goods stolen."
Besides the drivetrain samples, the thieves stole some Box Vector Mini Cranks and Box Bike Stands, all packaged for retail sale. Also stolen were small quantities of Box Concentric brake cables, Promax V-brakes and Promax headsets.
The company and Anaheim police are asking anyone with any information to contact the police department at 714-765-1900.
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The Box One rear derailleur. -
The Box One shifter. -
A neighbor's surveillance camera showed the thieves' vehicles. -
A neighbor's surveillance camera showed the thieves' vehicles. -
A neighbor's surveillance camera showed the thieves' vehicles. -
The Box Vector cranks. -
The Box Bike Stand.
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