Brazenness foiled by bravery11
Female shopkeeper disarms criminals who tried to rob till without masks – just a day after collecting dole in store
CRIMINALS targeting a rural shop and post office in a seaside resort were so brazen that they collected their dole there the day before, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The two men, who were later apprehended because they had not even worn masks, threatened the shop assistant with an imitation firearm.
Declan Dunbar, the owner of the shop and father to the threatened woman’s partner, told the MoS that it was the fourth such incident in four years and that he and his wife have been left ‘terrified’. It is only in recent years, as Courtown’s population has increased, that the picturesque holiday village has witnessed such violence.
Luke Strong, who is 18 and has already amassed 36 previous convictions, and Stephen Walsh, 21, who has 25 previous convictions, barged into Dunbar’s General Stores in Courtown last April.
Hours earlier the two had stolen two bottles of wine from another shop in the village and had sat on the seafront swallowing pills and drinking the alcohol.
During the raid, Walsh – who had recently been released from prison – pointed an air gun at the woman behind the counter and told her he would blow her ‘head off’. Strong was jumping around and behaving very aggressively. They left the woman working behind the counter terrified for her life.
‘This is typical now. So many previous convictions, how many chances do these people need?’ Mr Dunbar, 80, asked.
The men have recently been jailed but the terror the shopkeeper and his family feel has not abated.
In recent weeks a post office a couple of kilometres away in the village of Kilanerin was held up at gunpoint. Three raiders entered with a firearm, sledge hammer and pickaxe handle. A female worker received minor injuries and the men fled with a small amount of cash. The owner of the shop chased the men away with a shotgun.
Mr Dunbar told the MoS this week that he ‘would not dare’ leave his wife on her own any more.
He told how she is far too frightened to be left alone for any length of time.
The fear the couple feel is a recent phenomenon. Mr Dunbar told how for 50 years he ran the shop and post office without much disruption. He described a village where everyone knew everyone else and the gardaí policing the area lived in the village. But, he said, in recent years that has changed.
The shopkeeper first got bars on the windows after burglars attempted to break the window of his shop a few years ago. He was later forced to get tougher locks on his doors after raiders tried to kick down the shop’s door.
Life took a more sinister turn three years ago when armed men entered the shop for the first time. One man was carrying a con saw [circular blade], another had a knife, and the other had a gun.
‘It was terrifying to hear the con saw roaring and smoke coming out as they were trying to cut the iron door into the post office,’ Mr Dunbar told the MoS. ‘The lad with the knife was guarding me and the other two went over to the post office. One of the men pointed the gun at the post office assistant and then they started trying to cut the lock off the door. ‘I picked up a metal bar that I have behind the counter and he started watching me and then came at me with the knife. There was a girl in the shop who had only just been robbed in her own house and she was petrified. I tucked her in behind the counter. ‘Nothing like that had ever happened to me before.’ Mr Dunbar told how the village of Courtown has seen a huge rise in population in recent times. He blamed the practice of placing people from outside the area in estates that were built during the boom time.
‘Pointed gun and said he would blow her head off’
Mr Dunbar also complained that the gardaí policing the area do not live in the area and, as a result, do not know the people living in the town.
He said Courtown has a sergeant, who is ‘very good’ and ‘very active’, but she has to split her time between Courtown and the bigger town of nearby Gorey.
The number of gardaí policing Courtown has also dropped, despite its population multiplying significantly.
Mr Dunbar said: ‘The gardaí don’t know the community here any more – they don’t live here.
‘I believe anyone stationed in an area should live in the area. They did years ago.’
Depressingly, the elderly man
‘I picked up a bar and he came at me with a knife’
added he and his wife no longer feel safe in their home.
‘It’s not a nice thing for an old couple to be living here on our own. It is kind of terrifying. I couldn’t dare go out somewhere at night and leave my wife alone. The only thing I can do is go to a meeting and get back as quickly as I can. My wife is terrified on her own and that is no way to live.’
An exasperated Mr Dunbar told how Courtown has ‘gone past repair’, in his opinion.
‘The repair should have happened 10 years ago. It is sad for someone who has lived here, was born here and probably goes back about five generations and you see it deteriorating but you can’t do anything about it.
‘The Bayview Hotel was owned by a family for generations. It was sold out during the boom time to a developer but is now lying idle.
‘There is now talk of closing the post office but they will be closing a communication centre.
‘We are supposed to know who has died, who is getting married, and we do. If we go, there is nothing left.
‘We are not alone, it is happening all around the country.’
‘I couldn’t dare go out and leave my wife alone’