AROUND 40 NEIGHBOURS from the village of Turloughmore, Co Galway, used their power of citizen’s arrest when they apprehended three men who were attempting to burgle the home of an elderly couple in the area.

A neighbour noticed one of the young men acting suspiciously outside the couple’s house and when he went to investigate, he found two more men standing at the back door, peering in the windows.

When the three men, one aged in his late teens and the other two in their early twenties, saw the neighbour they tried to make a getaway by running through the fields at the back of the house.

The neighbour rang the gardaí and then notified the other 50 members of the local community watch group through a text messaging alert service.

Around 40 people turned up and managed to surround the men in an open-field and hold them down until the Gardaí arrived.

“They ran straight into the open countryside and had nowhere to hide,” said local man, Gerry Fahy who helped apprehend the men on the day. “They had ran enough at that stage and they couldn’t run anymore. We held them there until help arrived.”

Although Fahy told TheJournal.ie that the Gardaí were very quick in responding to the incident that happened on 6 March,  he said that the effect of local garda station closures was “clear”.

“We got the community alert back up and running properly a while back because there were a few break-ins in the vicinity,” said Fahy. “Every community needs to set one up because the Gardaí cannot be everywhere.”