Updated 20.12
AN EYEWITNESS TO a cash-in-transit robbery in Tallaght at about 11.30 this morning has described the incident as it unfolded.
Between €80,000 and €100,000 is believed to have been stolen in two robberies in the Dublin area this morning.
The eyewitness to the Tallaght robbery, named Patrick, told his story to RTÉ’s Liveline this afternoon.
“We were driving up towards Tallaght Village, and sitting in traffic beside the Bank of Ireland when the security van pulled in,” he said.
Suddenly the guy I was driving with says ‘would you look at your man across the road’. We presumed he must know the guard or something.
Patrick said the the man, who was wearing a hoodie, baseball hat, and either a scarf around his face or the hoodie pulled up high, walked straight across the road and up to the security guard and sprayed him with pepper spray directly in the face.
“He sprayed him, grabbed the cash box the guy was holding, and then got away. I don’t think he even ran,” he said. “At first I thought he was messing but then I saw the spray”.
RTÉ Radio 1 / SoundCloud
According to Patrick, the security guard “could have been in no fit state to do anything about it – he got a really good spray right in the face”.
The robber then made his getaway in a silver Peugeot 206 or 306. According to Patrick another witness in a van hit the peugeot as it fled the scene.
“The car had to drive up on the kerb to get away,” he said.
Patrick, who called 999, and his companion stayed on the scene until the gardaí arrived.
“It took that long for the police to get there,” he said.
I was on the phone calling 999, everyone there was on their phone, but it must have been 15 or 20 minutes before the police arrived.
Appeal
Gardaí have appealed for information about the two cash-in-transit robberies..
The second robbery, at the Charlestown Shopping Centre in Finglas, took place shortly after midday.
Again a security officer was approached and confronted by a male who fled the scene on foot and into a waiting car with the cash box.
A car has since been recovered on fire in the nearby North City Business Park.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to contact them at Tallght Garda Station on 01 666 0000 or Finglas Garda Station on 01 666 7500.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
First published 14.03
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