LAST UPDATE | 22 Feb 2023

A GRAFTON STREET shop manager has called for urgent garda action after her shop was struck for the fourth time since December.

This latest raid is part of a spate of attacks on shops in Ireland’s most famous shopping district. 

Zana Zhang spoke to The Journal this morning from the North Face shop shortly after she arrived to find the front door window smashed in.

She said it is the fourth such incident, with three further burglaries at the building resulting in stock being taken. 

While she and her staff were awaiting forensic specialist gardaí to arrive today, she said they would have to carry out a stock take later to determine if anything was stolen this time.

It is the latest incident involving a luxury goods store on Grafton Street with a burglary in January at the Hugo Boss shop.

“This is crazy – we’ve been hit four times. I have spoken to my area manager in the UK this morning and they are trying to decide what to do. 

“This is an important shopping high street in Ireland and there are a lot of break-ins – other shop managers are asking each other what is going on here – we need more gardaí.

“They need to take serious action to help us,” she said. 

Distress

Zhang said that the crime spree has caused serious distress to her staff and the last few months have been very difficult for them. 

“I don’t know what we can do to stop this – the stock loss is very serious, it costs a lot of money to replace the broken glass everytime.

“We feel really stressed – we will have to do a stock take to see if there are clothes taken.

“This happened at 3am last night, I got a phone call from a guard – we just fixed the glass from the other break-in just a few days ago.

“We need help here. The guards said they are doing their best but they need to do more here, we need guards on the street,” she added. 

A garda spokesperson said that gardaí had categorised this morning’s incident as criminal damage as they were still investigating whether there was a theft of property.

“Gardaí are investigating an incident of criminal damage which occurred at a retail premises on Grafton Street, in the early hours of this morning, Wednesday, 22nd February 2023.

“No arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing,” a spokesperson said.