TWO robbers armed with crowbars attacked a garage owner in an early morning raid.
James Woodcock tackled the intruders while wearing just his pyjamas and work shoes, but they made off with car keys from Castle Garage in Ewloe, Deeside.
Mr Woodcock, 42, who lives above his Liverpool Road garage with his wife, Louise, also 42, heard a noise at 7.15am yesterday and the security alarm went off.
“I was just about to go in the shower and Louise came down,” said Mr Woodcock.
“There were two guys in the MOT bay wearing hats and gloves. They pushed some metal shelves into a car to frighten her.
“She came up to get me and I ran down. I only had my pyjama bottoms and work shoes on.”
Mr Woodcock said he himself was confronted by the two crowbar-wielding robbers, who, he said, were aged between 22 and 26.
“I had my dog with me, an American Bull Dog,” he said.
“And I set her to tackle one of them but he hit her with a crowbar so I tackled him and the other one started hitting me with his crowbar.
“I got back on my feet and we had a fight outside.
“They pinched all the car keys and ran off and got into a car up the road.”
Mr Woodcock later found damage to doors to the reception, workshop and offices.
He estimates the cost of this and replacing and reprogramming keys will be in the thousands of pounds.
“I am just bruised – they met their match,” he joked.
“I was a bit scared though. You don’t expect to be burgled at 7am.”
l Over at the Black Lion in Northop Hall, which was burgled over the weekend, Kyle Futia had celebrated his 23rd birthday with friends and family the night before.
Fellow landlord Leon Hall, 26, had slept on the sofa in the pub while four others were in the apartment upstairs.
When he woke, he was shocked to find the pub had been burgled while he slept just feet away.
“I can’t believe I was asleep on the sofa and they were all around me,” said Leon.
Kyle said: “They smashed the juke box off the wall, the pool table was broken into, they took £2,500 out of the till and ransacked upstairs.
“They took one of the dogs and locked it in the kitchen upstairs.
“They had all the wines and spirits and even the steaks out of the fridge and my aunty’s handbag.”
Leon said: “It’s scary especially when the police came and said they could’ve attacked us if we’d woken up.
“They said there had been other burglaries in the area.”
Meanwhile, the landlord at the Red Lion in Hope did not wish to comment on the burglary at his premises.
A North Wales Police spokesman said yesterday: “We had reports at 7.31am today of a burglary at the Castle Garage, Ewloe.
"At 9.07am today we had a report of a break-in at the Red Lion in Hope.
“A burglary at Black Lion in Northop Hall was reported to us at 12.08pm.
“In all cases our inquiries are ongoing.”
Anyone with any information should call North Wales Police on 101.