A gang of up to five young men attacked a motorbike shop owner with weapons in an attempt to steal an off-road bike.
The gang - armed with hammers, a vice grip and a claw hammer - arrived at the scene on scrambler bikes - but eventually fled empty handed. The horror incident unfolded on Wednesday just after 3pm in Ashbourne Business Park in Co Meath, the Irish Mirror reports.
One eye witness told the Irish Mirror the gang pulled up on scrambler bikes outside the motorbike shop shouting: “Get it, get it.”
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“One of them ran over to a motorbike parked up outside and then two of them started to threaten the shop owner and a worker,” the eye witness said.
“Another moved in revving his scrambler trying to intimidate the shop owner while two more stayed a bit further back. One of them started to try and hit the shop owner with the vice-grips while another one of them tried to hot wire the off-road bike which was outside the shop.”
Video footage of the shocking incident shows the shop owner running over to try and stop the thug hot-wiring the bike. “It was horrific,” the eye witness told us.
“And completely brazen of them as there is CCTV everywhere in the business park as well as 24 hour security at the gates.”
Another witness said: “I don’t think it was a random incident. I think they may have come around earlier in a car to suss out the place as they went for one specific bike which was parked outside with a few more.
“I’ve never seen anything like this here in the business park. You hear about it happening in places closer to the city but not here.”
“It’s lucky the shop owner and his worker were not injured. They came close to it though but thankfully they are ok.”
Gardai in Ashbourne have confirmed they are investigating the attempted theft of the off-road bike. In a statement, they said: “Gardai are investigating an attempted theft of a vehicle which occurred at a business premises in Ashbourne, Co Meath on Wednesday, February 15 at approximately 3pm.
“There were no reports of injuries and investigations are ongoing,” the statement added.
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