POLICE were called to a bike shop break-in at Christchurch over the weekend.

Thieves targeted Cyclexperience in Barrack Road in the early hours of Sunday morning.

They smashed the window facing Jumpers Road using a rubber block for temporary fencing, often used on building sites, before making off with two bikes worth more than £6,000.

Chris Rupik, who has owned the business for the last five years, said: "They had a big bit of rubber from a building site - it's a really hard bit of rubber. They smashed the side window with it and it was clearly visible from the main road. They have stolen two bikes."

The Saracen Ariel full suspension mountain bikes taken were worth around £6,200, Mr Rupik told the Daily Echo.

He was alerted by the incident at around 3am, when the monitored alarm was triggered.

"The police came out automatically," he said. "Then we came out and tidied it. We have had the odd broken window before but never a break-in."

Mr Rupik said the shop he owns in Hythe suffered a series of break-ins in three weeks forcing him to take drastic action to protect his merchandise.

"My other shop in Hythe - I had three break-ins within the space of three weeks," he said. "This is the first time for the shop in Christchurch. It's terrible. When it happened in Hythe I was distraught. They kept coming back until I put up grills and made it look like Fort Knox.

"The world is full of [horrible] people but you just have to get on with it."

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "At 3.43am on October 30 police were alerted to a property alarm at Cyclexperience in Barrack Road in Christchurch.

"Officers were advised two bikes had been stolen from the shop.

"Police are investigating the incident.

"Any witnesses or people with information can contact police on 101 quoting reference 30:124."