Dismay as Carterton bike swiped in night

Carterton's Dave Gundesen has been left heartbroken and out of pocket after an expensive dirt bike was stolen from his home.

The 2005 Service Honda CR500 dirt bike - valued at more than $11,000 - was stolen from the Brooklyn Rd property this week, Wairarapa police said.

The burglars smashed their way into a shed to get the bike, which had been chained through the back wheel and chassis.

They would have had to keep the back wheel off the ground while moving it. Police said it appeared the burglars had hauled the bike over a fence and walked it through a neighbour's property.

Mr Gundesen said he had worked hard to restore other bikes before he upgraded to this one, and he understood only two were in the country. "I worked pretty hard to get that bike. It's pretty heartbreaking," he said.

The thieves may not have realised how valuable the bike was and could have a hard time trying to sell it.

"I think they might have bitten off more than they can chew."

Dirt bikes had no warrants or registration, so were hard to track, and Mr Gundesen's bike was not insured.

"Karma will come around and get them eventually," he said.

Mr Gundesen has posted an image of the bike on Facebook in the hope of finding it.

Another machine, a red Honda CRF450X dirt bike, was stolen from Langlands Honda Motorcycles last Wednesday morning.

The bike was worth more than $6500 and the business took to Facebook to try and recover it by posting security camera footage of the burglar. The image was shared more than 1000 times, although that bike had yet to be located.

Mr Gundesen said the use of Facebook in that instance had inspired him to post his image. It had already been shared from Tauranga to Oamaru.

Detective Sergeant Tracey Calder said the shed was entered between 2am and 4am on Monday. Police were not investigating any links between the two thefts at this stage. Contact Wairarapa Police on (06) 370 0300 or phone Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you have any information about the stolen bikes.