Posted online: Aug 13th, 2009

By Andrew Jennings
Reporter

AN armed raider held up staff at gunpoint at the Topaz Station on the Ballymany Road in Newbridge on Friday afternoon (7th), before bizarrely making his getaway on a pedal bicycle.
The raider, described as six-foot in height and wearing a black tracksuit, entered the Topaz store at approx 5:10pm, before pointing a gun in the face of one of the staff members and demanding money be put in a bag.
The raider exited the shop with a small amount of cash and made his escape on a black mountain bike.
Given that the robbery took place in board daylight on what was a busy Friday afternoon, Gardai in Newbridge are appealing for anybody that might have witnessed the incident or anything suspicious to come forward.
Speaking about the incident to the Kildare Post, a staff member who was in the store at the time said: “Needless to say the store manager is looking after the young lad that had the gun forced into his face, to make sure he’s okay. He was very shaken by the whole incident.
“It happened in the middle of the afternoon so they must have been fairly desperate to do something like that in broad daylight, but thank God nobody was harmed.”