Pensioner attacked with iron bar by burglars
J ewellery, prescription and cash stolen in home robbery
‘I was put on the ground ... I couldn’t stand the pain. Eventually I gave in and I had €270’
A PENSIONER who was injured with an iron bar in an attack at his home has spoken about how the heartless robbers stole €280 in cash, his glasses and his medical prescriptions.
The man, who is aged in his 80s, was grabbed around the neck and pinned to the ground as he arrived home from the chemist.
He told the Irish Independent that he “didn’t sleep a wink” following the attack involving two thieves.
The burglary took place in Drumcondra, on Dublin’s northside, shortly before 7pm on Friday.
The elderly man – who did not want to be identified – said that when he arrived at his front door, he noticed the window panel had been smashed.
“It was quarter-to-seven when I came home and it was dark. I got a taxi home because I wasn’t feeling too well anyway,” he said.
“I came up the driveway and I noticed the glass door and said to myself the house had been broken into.
Heavy
“Next minute, there was an arm around my neck and another fella had a heavy blunt instrument, and he said ‘Give me your f ***ing wallet’.
“I was put on the ground and he kept at me. He pressed in there [his chest] and then moved across the lungs,” he said.
While this was going on, the other burglar proceeded to check all of the pensioner’s pockets for money.
He found a mobile phone and a watch.
“I couldn’t stand the pain. Eventually I gave in and I had €270 or €280.”
But the cash wasn’t enough for the two men, who spoke with Dublin accents.
“He [one of the burglars] said: ‘You’ve more’. I’d say I was 10 minutes on the ground before I gave in,” he said.
“I probably should have given them the money first, but they demanded more money.
“Then the other fella said ‘We have enough, let’s go’,” he added.
When the man eventually got up and made his way into his home, he noticed the sitting room, kitchen and his bedroom were ransacked before he’d arrived back from the pharmacy.
The thieves had stolen a number of things from inside the house before they mugged him outside his front door.
“They got another mobile phone, it was expensive for me – €200 – and they got a gold ring and a watch, but it was so old you’d be lucky to get a fiver for it,” he said.
Gardaí arrived within 10 minutes and took a statement.
“Of course, when I went to bed that night, I didn’t sleep a wink,” he said at his home yesterday.
“It wasn’t the whole house, it was only the bedroom, this place here [the kitchen], the sitting room, and they didn’t touch the front room,” he said.
The victim said he still feels pain in the chest area, from what he describes as something resembling an iron bar pressed against him.
However, he didn’t think there was anything broken and he decided not to go to the hospital for treatment.
Gardaí in Santry have launched an investigation but no arrests have been made and no suspects identified.
Local sources said many elderly people living in the estates close to where the savage attack happened were living in fear.
Presence
“We don’t think that these type of things would have happened when Whitehall garda station was open – in those days there was a visible police presence in the area, but that is long gone,” a local said.
Whitehall garda station has been closed for nearly six years .
The area where the burglary occurred is policed by officers from Santry, which does not have a full-time station and is under Ballymun.
Local TD Noel Rock said there was huge concern over urban robberies becoming more violent. “People are not only worried about the burglaries now, but also about the violence,” Mr Rock said.
The TD said while it would be difficult to reopen Whitehall garda station due to its use as the city morgue, there was enough room in the building for a Garda presence.
“It’d make sense for some sort of Garda desk and some form of permanent Garda presence, which is what I’m trying to negotiate.”
Mr Rock added that sentencing for burglars, particularly repeat offenders, was too lenient.