Organised motorbike thieves have stolen several high-end performance bikes across the Bay in recent months, worth more than R1m.
The crime spate, which started in November, has seen more than 10 motorbikes stolen in the past two months.
Police said while scooter and motorbike thefts had taken place in various suburbs around the Bay for years, there had been a huge spike since November.
Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said police analysis showed that specific high-end and high-performance motorbikes were targeted, some locked behind gates or inside garages.
“The thieves break open the door and the perimeter gate, leaving with the motorbike,” she said.
“In other cases, bikes had been parked on the street outside houses when stolen.”
Janse van Rensburg said it appeared to be a gang targeting this type of motorbike.
“We have had cases where the garage doors were broken open and the bikes taken.
“Some of [them] are not in view of the street when they are parked, they are behind closed doors.
“The only way someone would be aware that there is a bike there is if they have done their homework.
“We suspect that it could be one group co-ordinating this theft but [this] is still being investigated,” she said.
Asked how the criminals were stealing the bikes, Janse van Rensburg said: “It is thought that once the bike is removed out of the property, it is taken to where a truck or trailer is waiting to transport it.
“There are logistics for such an operation, including a ramp for a truck or bakkie, as well as manpower,” she said.
Janse van Rensburg said that in previous thefts, any motorbike or scooter might be taken, whereas recently there had been a spike in thefts of high-end motorcycles.
“The recent thefts include BMWs, KTMs, Suzukis and Hondas, [varying] in price, but some [more than] R250,000.”
Police suspect that the motorbikes are either stripped and used for parts or smuggled out of the country.