A MAN is recovering after being abducted by an armed gang that held him hostage and threatened to shoot him unless a large cash sum from his family’s post office in Limerick was paid as a ransom.
The Irish Timesunderstands the gang behind the kidnapping and robbery escaped with more than €100,000. The hostage was found unharmed in the boot of his car eight hours after his abduction.
The robbery began at 8.30am yesterday when Tommy Kelliher was at the rear of his family’s post office in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, about to open the business for the day.
Mr Kelliher runs his own barber shop in the area but was also looking after the post office while his parents, Tom and Geraldine, were away on holidays.
The 25-year-old was confronted by an armed and masked man and taken away at gunpoint. The gang held him for more than an hour in his family car before they made contact with a woman who was starting work in the post office.
They explained by phone that they were holding Mr Kelliher hostage at gunpoint and threatened that he would only be released unharmed if she paid a ransom.
She was given instructions to take a large sum of money from the post office safe and to bring it to a secluded wooded area between Carrigkerry and Athea.
The woman carried out the instruction and the cash was left at the drop-off point some time before midday. The woman then left the area and the alarm was raised a short time later.
Mr Kelliher was found locked in the boot of his car at 4pm in the Templegreen housing estate in Newcastle West, about 1km from the spot where he was abducted.
An incident room has been established at Newcastle West Garda station. The car and the post office are crime scenes and will be subject to technical examination, according to a Garda spokesman.
The spokesman said neither Mr Kelliher nor the female worker were injured but they had been through a traumatic experience.
Gardaí have asked anyone who noticed any suspicious activity in the Newcastle West, Carrigkerry and Athea/Templegreen areas to contact them.
They have also appealed to anyone who may have seen Mr Kelliher’s black BMW car between 8am and 4pm yesterday to contact their local Garda station.
Local TD Patrick O’Donovan last night appealed to locals to help gardaí with their inquiries. He said the Kelliher family was highly respected in the community.
“This kind of thing needs to be dug out of communities and the only way to do this is to say enough is enough. There’s also a major responsibility on the local community to come forward with any information they may have that will help gardaí with their inquiries,” he said.