{"id":244419,"date":"2025-11-05T01:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/244419\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T01:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:34:08","slug":"thieves-climbed-onto-our-garage-and-then-onto-the-roof-of-the-house-lidl-trek-riders-home-ransacked-as-he-enjoyed-romantic-holiday-with-girlfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/244419\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Thieves climbed onto our garage and then onto the roof of the house&#8221; \u2013 Lidl-Trek rider\u2019s home ransacked as he enjoyed romantic holiday with girlfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/lidl-trek\" title=\"Lidl-Trek\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lidl-Trek<\/a> rider <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/otto-vergaerde\" title=\"Otto Vergaerde\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Otto Vergaerde<\/a> has spoken out after his home in Melle, Belgium was burglarised while he was on holiday in Spain with his girlfriend, with thieves breaking in via the roof and stealing jewellery and watches.The 31-year-old Belgian had only just arrived for his break when the shocking news reached him. \u201cNot exactly enjoyable, of course,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nieuwsblad.be\/sport\/profrenner-otto-vergaerde-was-nog-maar-net-op-vakantie-toen-er-werd-ingebroken-ze-klommen-via-de-garage-naar-het-dak\/102312114.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vergaerde admitted in comments to Het Nieuwsblad.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Burglars targeted his property over the weekend, taking advantage of the experienced World Tour pro being out of town, snatching specific valuables from Vergaerde&#8217;s home, but somewhat curiously leaving other items untouched \u2014 behaviour even the Belgian himself found unusual. \u201cI actually find it strange,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;They left behind plenty of things \u2014 like a television and paintings. They were only interested in jewellery and watches,\u201d Vergaerde clarified.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>It was Vergaerde\u2019s father, who regularly visits to feed the chickens, who noticed the break-in and alerted him. Initially, the method of entry was unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Thieves entered through Velux window after climbing roof<\/p>\n<p>Vergaerde, who rode notable races such as Paris-Nice, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour de Suisse for Lidl-Trek in 2025, says police quickly pieced together how the burglars entered his home. \u201cThey discovered that the thieves had climbed onto our garage and then onto the roof of the house. In the end, they got in through a Velux window.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The thieves even disabled a motion-sensor security light \u2014 though they still left traces behind. \u201cThey left a lot of footprints and dirt in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With police investigating, the Belgian has appealed to local residents for information. \u201cIf anyone noticed anything or also experienced a suspicious situation over the weekend, they should contact the local police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A gutted Vergaerde continues his holiday abroad, hoping for answers as the investigation progresses. More information from police is expected in the coming days.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek rider Otto Vergaerde has spoken out after his home in Melle, Belgium was burglarised while he was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-244419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}