A customer walked into a bike shop in Stevenage, took his time to eye up his favourite machine, then calmly saddled up and made his getaway on a £650 machine.

The Comet: The police would like to speak to this man about the bike theft.The police would like to speak to this man about the bike theft. (Image: Archant)

Staff at Contour Cycles couldn’t believe the cheek of the thief who carefully picked a time when they were all busy serving customers.

Mechanic Jamie Lee said: “He came in the shop, looked at a bike and waited for an opportunity to steal it.

“He then pulled it out and rode off. We didn’t notice anything until it was too late, which is really frustrating.”

The thief helped himself to the black and red Giant Roam mountain bike from the shop in Broadwater Crescent at around 1.30pm last Tuesday afternoon.

When Jamie and his colleagues realised what the man had done, they quickly called the police and looked back through their CCTV recording – which revealed the daylight robbery.

Jamie said: “Because of where the camera is placed you couldn’t get a great view of the guy’s face.

“But we’d ask anyone who has been offered a bike matching the description of the one which was stolen, or knows the person who stole it, to contact the police.”