FRIDAY the 13th was unlucky for Paul Cackett - his two bicycles, together worth £8,000, were stolen from his Fort Knox" of a garden shed. Paul, aged 52, who lives off Sandpit Lane, St Albans, is a passionate cyclist who has raised thousands of pounds for

FRIDAY the 13th was unlucky for Paul Cackett - his two bicycles, together worth £8,000, were stolen from his "Fort Knox" of a garden shed. Paul, aged 52, who lives off Sandpit Lane, St Albans, is a passionate cyclist who has raised thousands of pounds for charities over the years in sponsored foreign bike rides. Having lost his mother to cancer a few years ago, he generally raises funds for cancer charities including Grove House in St Albans. He also used the bikes to cycle 25 miles each way into his office in London where he has his own building surveyor's practice in Covent Garden. His wife Kate said she had never seen her husband so upset over anything when the bikes were stolen. She said: "He lives, breathes and eats cycling. They are not just a hobby but a passion. The shed is like Fort Knox with a professional padlock on it and the bikes inside were not only bolted to the wall but padlocked to each other with special Kryptonite locks." The thieves broke into the shed by knocking a window out with a garden fork stolen from a neighbour's shed. They then climbed in, kicked the door open from the inside and must have carried out the two bikes still locked together to a waiting vehicle. Mrs Cackett said: "The police said they must have got into a neighbour's back garden and fence-hopped until they got to ours. "They reckon they were two big blokes as two sets of large boot prints were found. The police think they may be professional bike thieves. They are pretty sure they must have targeted us as there were several bikes in the shed but they only took the two expensive ones." Although the bikes were insured, Mr Cackett, who is a member of the Jollly Wheelers charity cycle group and Verulam Club, is desperate to get these particular bikes back. The missing bikes are a Colnago C40 black-and-white carbon framed road-racing bike. It is irreplaceable as this particular frame is no longer made and a specialised S Works black mountain bike which Mr Cackett and his friends had built up over several months. Mr Cackett would like anyone with any information about his stolen bikes to contact St Albans police.