Robbers held gardaí at bay in stolen cars

March 1983

Gardaí manning a patrol car were forced to move their vehicle into cover when the driver of a stolen BMW attempted to ram them during a raid on a shop in Bray this week.

And when a second garda car arrived on the scene in Castle Street early on Tuesday morning, it too had to take evasive action when a second BMW drove at it.

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. when gardai were called to investigate a break-in at the ‘ Tabloid’ newsagent’s shop in the Castle Street shopping centre.

About six masked raiders using two stolen BMW cars broke the locks on the bollards at the car park entrance so they could bring the cars up to the shop.

A security grill protecting the shop was also broken and the thieves entered the shop where they stole goods, mostly cigarettes.

The first gardai on the scene were Joe Torney and Dave Patten from Shankill in a Renault 4 patrol car, which they had on loan from Enniskerry because Shankill’s own car was undergoing repairs.

The officers were immediately attacked by one of the BMWs and they only avoided the collision by taking refuge behind the petrol pumps at Castle Street Filling Station.

Minutes later, the Bray patrol car- a Sierra - carrying Garda John O’Donnell and Ban Garda Evelyn Doyle arrived on the scene but it too had to avoid being rammed and only escaped a collision by pulling up on the footpath.

The BMWS held off the garda cars while the raiders in the shop got back into their stolen transport.

They then took off at high speed for Dublin, travelling so fast that not even the Sierra could keep up.

‘ The BMWs are just too powerful and there is no way our cars could keep pace with them,’ said a garda.