Gardaí ‘too thin in ground’ so legend Lar uses Twitter to close in on raider
HURLING legend Lar Corbett has uploaded CCTV footage on Twitter and offered a €5,000 reward to help catch a raider who took a ‘substantial’ sum from his pub.
The All-Ireland winning star said he was taking the law into his own hands after complaining that crime is rising in rural areas because of Garda cutbacks.
He said while he is working closely with gardaí, they are overstretched due to cutbacks that have turned rural Ireland into a ‘sad place’.
‘The gardaí are too thin on the ground these days and this isn’t to be critical of the gardaí in Thurles, it’s just a well-known fact.
‘Thurles in particular is rampant with crime. The country is being robbed up and down and in particular it’s the older people in rural Ireland who are terrified to go outside for fear of what they might come home too.’
He told his 90,000 followers that the intruder, who broke into the third floor office of his bar in Thurles, had a ‘distinctive walk’, was familiar with the geography of the premises and used a key to get in. The Tipperary hurler told the Irish Mail on Sunday last night that while the robbery took place at 12.02 yesterday morning there has already been a brilliant response. Many contacted him directly to identify the suspect. He posted CCTV footage
of outside the pub’s front door, showing a man walking up it.
He said: ‘I hope the gardaí get to him before I do’, and commented on Twitter: ‘When I get the f***ing pr**k that broke into my pub last night and took the week’s takings I will be taking the law into my own hands this time. By Monday I will have the car and reg that dropped him, and I will have the proper footage of him. This is happening all over the country.’
Corbett believes that, with the assistance of his Twitter followers, he will be quicker than the gardaí in regaining his stolen cash.