DUBLINER CLIFF NOLAN, 38, got a call from a friend on Thursday night who let him know that his independent bike shop on Capel Street in Dublin city was being robbed.
He immediately got up his live surveillance of The Bike Stop Dublin, and saw masked rioters robbing the store in real time.
“The windows on the storefront were smashed, and I have a cage inside the shop, they managed to get that off the wall as the hinges gave in, it’s a very old wall, and then they started taking bikes out.
“They worked fast, they only had 12 minutes, but they were in and out, stealing more bikes,” Cliff said.
The Journal witnessed the shop being looted on Thursday night, as several masked individuals used wooden sticks to smash in the shop’s windows, and then quickly began removing bikes and other items.
Looting on Capel street this evening. Sticks used to smash in shop windows. pic.twitter.com/qOGeZ4WAcF
— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) November 23, 2023
Ten bikes, several of them worth €4000, were stolen, as well as valuable pieces of equipment. The till from the shop was found discarded in a nearby laneway, and destroyed.
Cliff said that he and his business partner “don’t have spare stock”, and that the financial cost of the robbery has hit them hard in what should be their busiest season pre-Christmas.
“We’ve been lucky starting out with this shop, I have always loved bikes and I worked in a different bike shop before. Everyone knows that it takes a while for small businesses to start making money, but we’ve gotten good reviews, and all those little things count when you are new.
“Until now, I haven’t had to reach too deep into my own pocket, but we are going to have to. The storefront needs replaced, the shutters need replaced, the cage needs replaced, the till. The stock,” he said.
Cliff was initially in shock when he saw the damage to the shop in person, and he says he’s been on a “rollercoaster” of emotions since then.
“I was in shock, I was angry, now I feel emotional. We have weeks of this ahead of us, in terms of fixing the shop, when we should be able to focus on selling bikes for Christmas,” he said.
The shop owners said the support they have had from other business owners on Capel Street has been amazing.
“There’s been so many coffees and pastries brought in here in the last two days. Next door gave me equipment to help with the fix up, they didn’t ask for anything in return. A friend gave us the wooden fixture that’s acting as a shopfront for now, so the support has been great.
“My niece does Twitter, and she set up one of those Go Fund things, and I think she showed me that it’s raised some money that will go some way to covering a portion of the costs, It’s mad to see people we don’t know helping out like that,” he said.
The Gardai have been in touch with the team at The Bike Stop Dublin, and will be calling in to investigate the break in and theft further in the coming days.
Businesses across the Dublin city centre area were broken into and looted from during the riots on Thursday night, which kicked off after a horrific security incident on Parnell Square East earlier in the day, when a man with a knife attacked three children and a creche worker in her 30s, who did her best to protect the kids.
Over 30 people were called before the Dublin Criminal Courts of Justice yesterday for charges including theft, disruption of public order, and possession of a knife in one case.
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