Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Angle grinder gang terrorise shop workers
‘Brutal’ burglars attack ATM with pick axe, saw & hammer
A SHOP owner last night told of his staff’s terror as the store was robbed by three men armed with a pick axe, saw, hammer and angle grinder.
The gang struck the Spar on the Ardoyne Road in North Belfast shortly after 11pm on Thursday as workers were closing up.
A PSNI spokesman said: “All of the staff were forced back into the store and one of the suspects attacked the ATM, however he was unable to open it.
“The males then took a sum of cash from a till and left the property. They left the scene in a dark-coloured saloon car.
“There were two members of staff and one customer in the store at the time. They were not injured, however, they were all left extremely shaken by their ordeal.”
Shop owner Gavan Wall added: “The guys were locking the shop up and these three guys were lying in wait.
“They grabbed the keys and forced the staff and one customer back into the shop.
“They used a pick axe, an axe and an angle grinder trying to get into the ATM and our tills.
“I’ve quite a few stores and I’ve seen lots of CCTV of burglaries and it is usually scary. But this one was brutal. It is the worst one I’ve seen by a million miles.
“They used a shock and awe effect to scare the life out of the two.
“They launched over the counter with an axe.
“They didn’t just go up and say it, this guy actually dived across the counter to scare the living daylights out of them.
“Nobody was physically hurt thankfully but they’re very shaken up.
“We’re not sure how much they’ve taken but they’ve at least hundreds from us and they’ve damaged the tills so we have to get a new system in.
“They were sawing at the ATM trying to get into that – there was smoke and flames coming from it.”
Police appealed for anyone with information about the incident to contact them at Musgrave on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1643 29/03/18.
Meanwhile, female staff members and several customers were caught up in a robbery at a petrol station off the Shankill Road in West Belfast on Wednesday night.
Detectives are investigating whether the same men also attempted to smash their way into an off-licence on the Falls Road earlier that day.
A PSNI spokesman said: “At around 9.50pm two men entered a service station on Lanark Way. They threatened staff with a bat before making off with a sum of cash.
“We are investigating a possible link between this incident and an earlier attempted robbery at an off-licence on the Falls Road.”
SHOP OWNER YESTERDAY SCARE