GARDAÍ APPEALED for information yesterday after an elderly woman was tied up and threatened at gunpoint in her home.
Olive Pedlow (73) was “badly shaken” after two men wearing balaclavas burst into her bungalow in Murroe, Co Limerick, on Saturday night.
The men, who were armed with a double-barrel shotgun and machete, acted very aggressively but left empty handed. Ms Pedlow’s husband Kenneth died two years ago.
Sgt Helen Holden, of Cappamore Garda station, said: “She was in the house on her own at around 9pm. She had just . . . gone into the kitchen to give one of her dogs an injection when she heard a loud thump on her door and she was confronted by two men wearing balaclavas.
“They held her hostage and demanded money and jewellery. The raiders tied the widow’s hands with a plastic cable tie and locked her in a bathroom. Her neighbours found her when she started shouting after she managed to open a window in the bathroom.
“She’s a tough woman for her age,” added Sgt Holden.
About an hour after the raiders had first entered her home, Ms Pedlow was freed by her neighbour Jim Kenny and another man.
Mr Kenny and his wife Margaret were in mourning after burying their son, Francis, who was killed in a road crash in Arizona on March 27th.