Stealing £100,000 from a Securicor van is one thing. Stealing money and the van itself is almost too cheeky.
But that's what happened yesterday when a Securicor driver left the engine running as he went to collect coins from a telephone kiosk at Cork University Hospital. When he returned, the van was being driven off at speed containing an estimated £1,000 collected from other kiosks in the city.
This has been a bad summer for Securicor in Cork. In June a motorcyclist made off with £100,000 in cash which was contained in a security chute in another van owned by the company. That snatch was made as the van made its way through rush-hour traffic.
A few days later an anonymous caller tipped off gardai that £80,000 of the money had been left at St Columba's Church in the Douglas area of Cork. This money was in marked notes but the remainder, in unmarked notes, has never been recovered.
The latest incident will cause more blushes for the security company which conducted an internal investigation after the June fiasco. Garda sources said last night they could hardly believe it when the driver of the Securicor van contacted them yesterday afternoon at about 3 p.m. to say his van had been stolen.
The van was discovered at about 6 p.m. in the Togher area of Cork.
The company was not available for comment last night.