QC Antiques at Blakemere Village targeted by armed robbers

Two masked men carrying metal pipes targeted QC Antiques at Blakemere Village, smashing a cabinet and attempting to steal silverware.

Thankfully, the shop’s owner Andy Icely was able to chase them away, with the help of maintenance staff and customers, and the pair left empty-handed.

He said: "Luckily no one is hurt, but sadly many items are broken. It was quite scary, we never get anything like that at Blakemere.

“I’ve been here a number of years and we have never had anything like this before.

“I’m afraid it’s the world we’re living in at the moment. People don’t want to work, they want something for nothing.

“I work seven days a week, 10am to 5pm every day, I never take any holidays. I work all the time so I certainly wasn’t going to let them have anything.”

Andy has worked at Blakemere for 14 years but only began running his own venture, QC Antiques, around four months ago.

The masked robbers came running into the shop at around 12.45pm on Thursday (August 8), wearing masks and carrying metal bars.

They headed straight for a cabinet full of silverware, telling Andy ‘not to f**king move’.

However, when they broke into the cabinet Andy responded by ‘hitting them with everything he had’.

“They just wanted to get out in the end, they didn’t get away with anything.

“When they ran off, there were customers chasing them.

“It was a little bit hairy. They didn’t get away with anything but I did suffer about £5,000 worth of damage.

"Please continue to support my antique business that I have built from the ground up, so I can continue to do what we love."

Ginny White, owner of Blakemere Village, believes it was a ‘premeditated’ attack.

“They came prepared, they knew they were targeting a specific unit on-site,” she said.

“What was lovely was that everyone pulled together. When people realised what was happening they came together to make sure that they (robbers) left and knew they weren't going to get away with it.

“There was a real community team spirit to make sure everyone was okay. Some customers even got involved too!”

She added: “This was an isolated incident.

“We’ve been open for 30 years and we have never had anything like this happen before.”

An eyewitness added: “We were in the funfair with the children and heard a commotion, a few seconds later there was a man dressed all in black with a crowbar running past with men chasing him shouting ‘stop him’.

“They locked the fairground gates to keep the children safe as we weren’t sure where the criminals had gone.

“When we eventually left the fairground we went to the antique shop where people were talking about what had happened. They had smashed the whole shop up and were apparently trying to get silver from the cabinet.

“It was scary and so unexpected. I really hope the owner of the antique shop is doing okay.

“It’s a scary world we live in for sure.”

It is business as usual at Blakemere Village today, with QC Antiques set to reopen on Saturday (August 10).

Officers are now asking anyone who witnessed what happened or may have any relevant footage to get in touch with them, quoting incident number IML-1890170.

DS James Elliott said: “This occurred in the middle of the day and even if people may not have witnessed the incident itself, we’re urging those who were in the area to think about whether they saw anything suspicious either before or after the incident.

“The same goes for anyone who may have captured footage which could aid our ongoing investigation.”

You can report information via cheshire.police.uk/tell-us, or call 101.