Mayo burglar broke into takeaway three times in five days

A man was using crack cocaine and under pressure from drug dealers when he carried out a series of ‘bizarre’ burglaries.

Noah Schloesser, aged 21, of Carn Tulach, Kiltimagh, entered a guilty plea at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of burglary and four criminal damage offences.

Three of the burglaries were carried out at the same takeaway business in Kiltimagh and all of the offending took place over a five-day period last January. The final offences were carried out while Schloesser was on bail for crimes he had committed three and four days previously.

Det Gda Sinead Caheny told the court that at 3.30am on January 18, 2026, Gardaí received a report of an intruder at Martino’s Takeaway, Main Street, Kiltimagh.

The front window had been smashed and Schloesser was still inside the takeaway when Gardaí arrived. He had sustained a large cut to his arm, and the fire brigade was required to break down the door and get him out of the premises.

The court heard he was sitting down and smoking a cigarette when Gardaí and emergency services arrived.

Schloesser had stolen cigarettes and €325 worth of cash. He could not be interviewed that night as he required medical treatment.

The following night, Schloesser returned to the same business premises. He pulled down the boarding that had been put in place, entered the takeaway and was captured on CCTV damaging a cash register and removing the drawer of the till. Schloesser cut himself again carrying out the crime and his bleeding caused contamination at the food premises.

He was arrested and interviewed by Gardaí where he made full admissions. Two days after being charged and released on bail, Schloesser again targeted Martino’s and also broke into Special 1 barbers in Kiltimagh on January 22.

He smashed the glass of the front door of the barbers shop and stole €200 in cash, as well as six barbers’ scissors with a total value of €600 and a hair clippers worth €3,000.

After leaving the barbers the defendant broke in the front door of Martino’s.

“He loved that takeaway,” Judge Eoin Garavan remarked.

The cash register was again damaged and €200 stolen. Schloesser left lollipops he had taken from the barbers in the takeaway. He was later arrested in Athlone after carrying out offences in the Westmeath town.

Schloesser has three previous convictions and has been in custody since January on these matters.

Barrister Christina Burke, representing Schloesser, said her client was ‘no artful dodger’. She said he was diagnosed with ADHD and autism at a young age.

Ms Burke said her client had come off his medication, fell in with a bad crowd and began taking drugs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She estimated Schloesser was spending €300 to €400 a week on drugs at the height of his addiction. He owed €3,000 to drug dealers when he carried out the crimes.

In a Garda interview, Schloesser told officers that he was “off my head on crack cocaine”.

“Every time I do crack, I do a burglary,” he said.

He told Gardaí he took the cash to pay a drug threat having been threatened. Schloesser claimed drug dealers told him that if he didn’t pay the debt he would be ‘put into a car’.

Judge Garavan commented that the evidence in the case was “bizarre and somewhat comical” at the outset before a more “sinister” drug debt was revealed.

“Recent cases before this court and in recent cases reported by the national media show that people who owe money would appear to come under very significant and malevolent threat,” he added.

The judge said it was an “extraordinary and remarkable series of events". He imposed a prison sentence of three years and four months, but suspended the final year and backdated the sentence to June 1 as credit for time already spent in custody.

“All in all, it seems this is a man of probably good character, but the drug debts made him overcome those better parts of himself,” the judge commented.

• Published as part of the Courts Reporting Scheme.