GUTSY bike shop owner Chris Hart stopped a gang of thieves from stealing more than £10,000 worth of bicycles.

Mr Hart managed to thwart the attempts of four men who broke into his store, Noah’s Ark in Brimscombe, and tried to make off with six high-end bikes in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Thanks to the stores extensive security system Mr Hart was able to get to the site in the nick of time and used his car to block the burglars as they attempted to flee the scene.

“The night watchman rang me when he became aware that someone was trying to break into the store,” said Mr Hart.

“When I arrived on site I saw that a van was parked on the bridge so I decided to block it in with my car.”

The four men then attempted but failed to ram his Nissan Navara truck out of the way.

Two of the men then pulled crowbars out and approached the drivers door before all four fled empty handed, down the A419 London Road.

They left a 53-registered white Ford Transit van at the scene.

Although Mr Hart was able to recover the bikes they have suffered some damage which will affect their value.

“The main thing to come from this incident is to let people know we are not a soft touch when it comes to burgalry attempts. We have very good CCTV, burglar alarnms and a night watchman,” said Mr Hart.

This is the fifth time in the same number of years that Noah’s Ark has been the victim of a burglary however on each occasion the culprits were caught.

Police are continuing to search for the offenders but at this time no arrests have been made.

Anyone with information should call 101 quoting incident 44 of August 14.