Apparently, e-bike fires and alleged defective parts aren’t the one factor plaguing the e-bike trade in the meanwhile: unknown thieves have allegedly stolen a transport container stuffed with Tern bikes this week.
Roughly $170,000 value of Tern e-bikes and folding bikes – which quantities to 43 complete bikes – have been stolen from a big transport container because the product traveled by rail from Los Angeles, California to the corporate’s warehouse in Illinois.
Tern representatives say that they confirmed the e-bikes and folding bikes have been delivered by cargo ship to the Port of Los Angeles and that the container supposedly containing the bikes was loaded onto the freight practice heading to Illinois, the place Tern’s warehouse is.
“[The shipping container] confirmed up on the rail terminal with out a seal on the container,” a Tern consultant informed Bicycle Retailer. “When [the container] was delivered to the warehouse, the container was lacking [43] bikes.”
Tern is at the moment working with legislation enforcement to attempt to decide how this occurred and the place the bikes are. Their solely publicly shared lead to date is that one of many stolen bikes was briefly listed on eBay in Southern California, which may indicate that the bikes have been stolen in California.
The stolen fashions embody:
33 HSD P5i in blue/inexperienced – a restricted colorway for the North American market
5 Verge x11 non-electric folding bikes in chrome/pink
5 Verge x11 non-electric folding bikes in black/magenta
Tern says that not one of the bikes included on this cargo had batteries included, so if shoppers discover a Tern bike from a web-based reseller like eBay or Craigslist that comes with out a battery, it might be one of many 43 stolen bikes.
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Given {that a} Tern HSD P5i mannequin weighs 61.5 kilos and a Verge x11 non-electric folding bike weighs 22.5 kilos, stealing a mixed 43 complete bikes of those fashions is sort of actually a hefty operation.
Tern is sadly not the one retailer who has confronted product theft on the Port of LA; the Journal of Commercereviews that container thefts have been on the rise for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic that hit the U.S. in 2020, and that more and more subtle prison networks could also be guilty.
Anybody with details about the stolen Tern bikes can contact Tern at 888-570-8376 x11.