Wintry weather can be good for deterring crooks who can't be bothered going out to commit crime in the cold. But not for some looters who took the opportunity to pull off a heist on a massive - if low-cost - scale.
Eight brazen thugs in Dublin, Ireland are now set to appear in court after taking advantage of the disruption caused by Storm Emma to rip the roof off a Lidl with a JCB.
The incident was so serious that at one point the army were called out to give much-needed back-up to local police, according to the Irish Mirror. GTA players would call this one a 'six-star' incident.
The shameless looters even shared vids on social media showing them raiding the store, leaving with bags of stolen items and even managing to lift out the store's safe.
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A source told the Irish Mirror: "A large, violent gang of well-known criminals targeted the Lidl earlier in the day and then stole the JCB excavator that was being used to clear ice.
"They took to the Lidl shop, having smashed into the property and seized the safe."
The chaos began at around 5pm on Friday when Irish gardai received a call that around 30 people were attacking the Lidl, threatening and abusing staff. They later heard of the theft of a nearby JCB which was then used to demolish a corner of the store.
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Police struggled to get to the scene because the gang cleverly built barricades made of snow across the road, preventing the gardai's saloons from reaching the scene quickly.
The army were eventually called to smash the barricades, and coupled with armed support and the Garda Emergency Response Unit - equivalent to a US SWAT team - forces were eventually able to neutralise the scene.
It is understood that the driver of the JCB was one of the people arrested at the scene and the store's safe was eventually recovered.
Tallaght councillor Brendan Ferron told Irish Independent that he was 'extremely disappointed' to see so many people involved in the alleged robbery.
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"The village is completely snowed in so I'm sure it was an absolute nightmare for the guards to get up there and deal with this situation," Ferron said.
"My real issue with all of this is that when something like this kicks off it often leads to even more people taking part."
Lidl confirmed they are 'aware' of the incident but will not comment further now that a criminal investigation has begun.
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