Thievesbagtiger and12canaries

November 1995

Wexford Gardaí have a couple of unusual thefts to investigate this week as they hunt for culprits who stole a giant inflatable tiger and 12 canaries in separate incidents.

The Esso emblem and the songbirds were taken in dead-of-night raids on a garage and a house.

The tiger was taken from the roof of J. J. Byrne’s Citroen garage at Newtown Road, along with an air pumping unit, in an apparent prank in the early hours of Monday morning.

Despite its huge size, no trace has since been since of the promotional animal, which would have taken some effort to remove from its 20ft high perch.

In another unusual incident, 12 prized canaries were spirited away in the early hours of Tuesday morning from a bird shed at the rear of a residence in Wexford town.

Gardaí are appealing for information about this robbery and are hoping that somebody with knowledge of it might soon ‘sing’ for them.

A number of cars parked along the same street were broken into the previous night, with several items being taken, though Gardaí say there was ‘ little of any significant value’. They did not speculate on whether the car break-ins and the canaries crime might be linked.