A man is in custody after burglars tried to get away with a quad bike from North Yorkshire.

Just after 3am today, Tuesday 20 February, North Yorkshire Police received a 999 call that a garage in a rural location east of Skipton had just been broken into and a quad bike worth £9,000 had been stolen.

Within 20 minutes, the quad bike was spotted by police officers south of Skipton. It was being towed by another car, and as the officers closed in, two men sitting on the bike and wearing balaclavas began throwing debris at their police car.

As more police units approached from the other direction, the towing car suddenly stopped, and the men on the bike ran off in different directions. Officers caught a third man trying to leave the car, and he was arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The quad bike and a power tool found in the car, also believed to have been stolen, will be returned to their rightful owners following forensic enquiries. An investigation is ongoing to arrest the outstanding suspects, and the detainee – a man in his 40s, from Bradford – remains in custody.

The quad bike had been fitted with a tracker, which alerted the victim that it was being stolen. The suspects appear to have cut through a metal door and damaged security lighting to steal it. North Yorkshire Police is urging all quad bike owners to consider fitting trackers, and to check other security measures, to give officers the best chance of recovering stolen property and bringing offenders to justice.