THE OWNER of the Village Stores and post office in Castlebellingham, Co Louth, described the ordeal that he and his partner went through after she was held by a gang of masked gunmen early yesterday morning. Gardaí have appealed for witnesses and issued a description. It is believed the gang took over €100,000.
Members of the public raised the alarm after Joe McLaughlin was overcome by stress.
He collapsed after he delivered the black plastic bin bag of cash to a member of the gang in the main street after 9am.
Mr McLaughlin later described how he had just returned to the rural home that he shares with Ms Coleman after walking their dog.
“I went to put the key in the door and the dog barked.
“I looked and there were three men standing behind me. They were masked and wearing dark clothes and put a gun to my head,” he added.
He was told to go and open the door and not to make a noise. He went into the kitchen where Ms Coleman was and the gang told the couple to sit down.
Mr McLaughlin said that one of the gang then put a gun to Ms Coleman’s head and “they produced a mobile phone and [used it] to take a picture of Tess. They got her to write a note to the postmistress and to tell her to follow the instructions on it”.
Mr McLaughlin was forced to leave Ms Coleman behind and head into work. He had the mobile phone with the picture on it and the handwritten note with him which he had to show to the postmistress.
“I was told to go about my normal business until the postmistress came in at 8.50am and then show her the picture and the note.
“She had to fill a black bag with money and then I walked out with it. I had to leave it at a specified place and I was told that if the gardaí were contacted or there was an alarm or buzzer that Tess would be found in a graveyard,” he said.
After he dropped off the bag of cash, Mr McLaughlin could not take the stress and collapsed on the footpath near the shop.
A member of the public then raised the alarm and rang gardaí and Mr McLaughlin spent “the longest 40 minutes of my life” waiting for word to say that Ms Coleman was safe.
He believed that she was going to be taken away from the house, but the gang had stayed there with her.
Mr McLaughlin said: “I don’t want to ever go through something like that again.”
He added that he was very angry with Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern for not having a full-time Garda presence in Castlebellingham.
Gardaí are seeking information on a number of people and vehicles who were around the main street at the time, including the car in which the man who collected the bag was a passenger.
The man who did the pick-up is described as being about 6ft tall, aged between 46 and 50, had grey hair and a grey moustache and was wearing a brown jacket.
Supt John Gilligan said that gardaí are looking for information on another car, a silver Toyota Avensis with an 05-D registration.
“The person who used that car was wearing a suit, was in his 30s and had dark spiked hair.
“The person was in the area and if he makes contact with us we may simply be able to eliminate him from our investigation.”
There were two buses passing when the cash pick-up took place.