Vandals who broke into a drive-in movie storage facility in south Dublin 'trashed everything they could' before fleeing.

The owner of Retro Drive-in Movies, Ryan O'Neill, said it happened two weeks ago in Leopardstown, causing up to €7,000 worth of damage.

The break-in resulted in considerable damage to a number of trailers and shop units.

Mr O'Neill told Lunchtime Live there have been a number of similar incidents.

"There's certainly been an increase in the number of incidents that have happened," he said.

"We don't think they were there to steal things, it was more to just create an issue and to cause damage.

"They kind of broke down the shutter, got inside [and] literally just trashed everything that they could.

"They took all the stock out, just took what they wanted and made off".

The break-in at Retro Drive-in Movies in Leopardstown, Dublin. Picture: Supplied

Mr O'Neill said the mindless vandalism is harder to comprehend.

"It was all of the tills, the shutter for the shop, also they let off all the fire extinguishers," he explained.

"Quite a bit of stock they destroyed as well; for a small business it's terrible".

"It's one of those things that if somebody wants to steal stuff, you can kind of half understand that," he said.

"But for somebody to just come in and just destroy stuff for the fun of it, it makes it even more difficult to swallow.

"It's difficult to understand why somebody would want to do that".

The break-in at Retro Drive-in Movies in Leopardstown, Dublin. Picture: Supplied

Mr O'Neill said they are now re-examining their security.

"We're lucky, in a way, that it was just the storage facility," he said.

"We don't keep our screens or any of our audiovisual equipment there.

"It could have been much worse, it could put you out of business overnight.

"I know from talking to one or two others, where this has happened, it was the same kind of thing as well: it was just to cause damage.

"Certainly they seem to be targeting businesses that are not operational all of the time," he added.

Listen back to the full segment below:

Main image: Some of the vandalism caused following a break-in at Retro Drive-in Movies in Leopardstown, Dublin. Picture: Supplied