Thieves Attempt ATM “Saw and Grab”

Rob Goforth waited outside his bar, Conway’s Irish Pub, while San Diego police officers completed a burglary report.

He’s been through this drill before; too many times if you ask him.

On Thursday morning about 5:24 a.m., Goforth got a call from an alarm company alerting him to a robbery inside the pub located on Rancho Carmel Drive in Carmel Mountain Ranch.

In about ten minutes, the suspects used a big grinding saw to try and cut into the bar’s ATM but gave up on the task. The suspects grabbed ten bottles of vodka before heading out the back door, dropping bottles on their way up the hill behind the pub.

“It’s terrible,” said Rob Goforth. “There’s probably $800 in the ATM. They ruined a $2500 ATM.”

It’s not the first time this has happened at this pub. About two years ago, thieves took a sledgehammer to the ATM, Goforth said.

He owns another bar, The Watering Hole in Clairemont, that was broken into about two or three weeks ago.

”I’ll have to get rid of the ATMS in the bars,” Goforth said.

Goforth said the break-in also cost him about $800 for the door.

His message to the thieves: “Get a job.”