Callous thieves target shop hit by floods

A BANDON shop, already hit by floods, was the victim of callous thieves who broke in on Wednesday morning.

Robert Fitzpatrick, owner of Reen’s Shop of North Main St said he thought he had seen it all following the floods that engulfed the town at the weekend. 

But he was dismayed to wake up on Wednesday morning to hear two thieves breaking into his shop.

‘It was around 7am and it was still dark when two individuals kicked in the front door and smashed the window. They woke me up and I ran downstairs but they had fled on foot by the time I got down,’ Robert told The Southern Star.

‘They only managed to get some cigarettes and scratch cards and I rang the gardaí straight away. They were on the scene within minutes and started examining the CCTV to see could they identify the culprits. I’m a bit bitter about it, but these are the joys of being in business for yourself.’

However, within half an hour of the incident being reported, gardaí in Bandon apprehended two suspects, who are currently in custody. Luckily for Robert, his business wasn’t as badly affected by the floods as others.

‘Thankfully we had warnings issued all day Saturday so we were organised when the flooding did begin. We had about a foot of water in the shop and home, and we were bucketing it out as fast as we could. I must say the locals were great and we got lots of help from people.’