Fiery Caroline thwarts thief
Postmistress shouted NO – even though man had ‘gun’
FIERY Foulksmills postmistress Caroline Foxe has been hailed a hero having stopped a robber from stealing money from her post office by repeatedly shouting ‘No’ at him.
Caroline said she was terrified for the safety of an 83-year-old customer rather than being concerned for herself when the robber arrived with a weapon at her counter.
Caroline said: ‘I knew things had gotten real when I saw a barrel of what looked like a gun dangling from his hand. As he made contact with the counter he said: “Give me the money”. I shouted “No” like I would if Kilkenny scored a goal at a Wexford hurling match.’
‘COOL HEADED’ Foulksmills postmistress Caroline Foxe said she was terrified for the safety of an 83-year-old customer, rather than being concerned for herself – when a disguised armed robber attempted to steal cash from her business on Tuesday.
Caroline has been praised for being as calm as humanly possible in the face of a man who appeared to be armed with a shotgun, who entered her premises in the quiet village on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking to the New Ross Standard in her bolted shut office, a clearly shaken Caroline said she was serving one of her favourite customers, a local pensioner, and was about to wish him a nice evening when a tall man came in the front door at 4.17 p.m.
‘ This guy walked in the door. He had a bandana wrapped around his face and was wearing a baseball cap, with a hood up and a jacket. I was going to clean him for coming into my business with his face covered. You don’t do that going into a bank or a financial institute like this. I knew things had gotten real when I saw a barrel of what looked like a gun dangling from his hand. As he made contact with the counter he said: “Give me the money”. I shouted “No” like I would if Kilkenny scored a goal at a Wexford hurling match.’
The man, standing 6ft tall, pushed a green bag over the counter and told Caroline to put the money in the bag. She again countered with a loud ‘No’, saying ‘No, I can’t.’
The man threatened her, saying: ‘I don’t want to hurt anybody, just put the money in the bag,’ as the pensioner stood to the side.
Martin McClements, who was working in the same building in the shop beside the post office, was unaware of what was transpiring nearby as he was taking in a delivery.
Meanwhile the robber repeated his request for the money, before bringing the gun across the counter.
‘I said no. I was staring at the weapon all of the time. I tried to make eye contact. It all happened so quickly. I put my hand under the counter and pressed the panic button and then he left in a van in the direction of the bridge. It was all captured on CCTV.’
Caroline said she reacted in anger to the man’s appearance. ‘I have a temper but it takes a lot to get it out of me and he did.’
She said the man was agitated throughout.
‘After, my legs felt like jelly. I called 999 anyway but the panic button had worked and gardai arrived at the scene later in the afternoon from New Ross.’
When asked if she would react the same way to the incident if it happened again, Caroline said: ‘As a postmistress you turn these things over in your head and you would have nightmares about them at times but you just get on with it and go to work. You see these things happening on Crimecall but you never think they will happen to you. I am here ten years now as postmistress and we’ve only ever had a few breakins, nothing like this. We are told that our number one priority is to protect ourselves. But you don’t know how you’re going to react.’
Caroline said she thought everyone was aware that it was practically impossible to rob a post office due to all of the alarms, the CCTV, panic buttons, bolted doors and the safes which ‘you’d want cemtex to even try to open’.
‘You just have opportunists like this who think they will get a few pound over the counter. I was angry and thought how dare he come in here to where I am trying to make a living and serve the public. I could see my livelihood flashing before my eyes and I truly felt if he got something from me my heart would fall into my feet and my career would be over.’
While interviewing Caroline, several customers phoned and called in to praise her for her bravery and to say ‘well done’.
‘ Things like this unnerve everyone. I had people who had an extra few pounds in the house and they have lodged it. They are locking the doors especially after what happened the man in Caroreigh. People are on edge and they are worried. Personally, you’d be thinking what could have happened. If he had touched the customer I don’t know how I’d cope.’
She was greatly heartened to receive a phone call from the General Secretary of the Irish Postmasters’ Union Ned O’Hara and from the support she has received from her customers.
New Ross district Superintendent John McDonald said a full investigation is under way.
He said efforts are being made to identify the man whose face well covered.
‘She believed he had something in his hand, a firearm. We don’t believe that to be the case but we are investigating.’
He said no cash was taken in the robbery.
‘Nothing was obtained and nobody was injured during the course of it, thank God. There was some type of getaway vehicle outside. Another person was in it and they left in the direction of Wexford.’
Gardaí carried out door-to-door enquiries in Foulksmills on Wednesday.
Supt McDonald is appealing to anyone who saw a vehicle travelling at speed or being driven erratically on a dashcam or on CCTV. ‘ There is no indication that the man was belligerent. He demanded money on a number of occasions and it wasn’t forthcoming and he left empty handed.’
Praising Ms Foxe’s coolheaded response, Supt McDonald said: ‘She was definitely very calm – as calm as you could be considering the shock she must have got when she observed a person who she believed to have a gun at her counter.’
He appealed to anyone who has any information about the attempted robbery to contact gardaí in New Ross on 051 426030 or on the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111.