{"id":276501,"date":"2026-02-02T06:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:39:16","slug":"nicolas-roche-attacked-in-violent-robbery-believes-it-was-pre-planned-sticky-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276501\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Roche attacked in violent robbery, believes it was pre-planned \u2013 Sticky Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/xRoche.jpg.pagespeed.ic.zf4UXOymde.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-94738\"  \/>Nicolas Roche has been targeted in a robbery by a group of men who appeared to have prior information about the watch he was wearing (Photo: Caroline Kerley)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Nicolas Roche was attacked as he left a restaurant in Spain and beaten by a group of men who were tyring to take an expensive watch from the former professional cyclist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Roche, who retired from racing at the end of the 2021 season, suspects he was spotted while having a meal by someone who tipped off the men who attacked him on the street as he left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Though shouts from his girlfriend helped raise the alarm, and two security guards working nearby eventually came to his aid, Roche said he suffered a beating as he tried to fend on the attackers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cJust been attacked and beaten up by three men, as I walked out of a restaurant in central Barcelona, trying to rob my watch,\u201d Roche said of the incident, which took plabe on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"946\" height=\"638\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/xRoche-watch.jpg.pagespeed.ic.URR0Yh7vSj.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-203717\"  \/>Nicolas Roche\u2019s watch was left with a busted strap, but he managed to hold onto it and security guards eventually came to his aid<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cThanks to my girlfriend and the two security agents from the shop further down the street, I managed to not only save my watch but mostly stopped the attackers from beating me more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cIt\u2019s crazy to think that someone in the restaurant must have warned the gang to wait outside for me. I had read about all of this in the news but it\u2019s something else to experience it. Biggest fright of my life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWhere I was shocked was that, for over five minutes, people stood there watching as I was on the ground as my girlfriend was shouting for help until, eventually, the two security came out to scare the thieves away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In many European countries, gangs try to target people they believe may be carrying cash, or wearing expensive jewellery, and use spotters to supply them with information about potential targets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They often try and get that information, to act on immediately, from people monitoring customers at high end restaurants and bars, often targeting them on the street when they are alone or otherwise vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The police in Barcelona, where the problem has been especially acute, set up the specialist Titani Unit in 2022 to target violent muggers working in organised groups to steal expensive watches, which can be easily sold on and fetch high prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Roche has been targeted in a robbery by a group of men who appeared to have prior&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-276501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}