Brazen burglars steal underwear, try on clothes and cook themselves supper

Three young girls have been left so shaken following the bizarre burglary of their rented house that two have been forced to move out; while the third has returned home.

Along with a TV, game consoles, clothes and a tablet computer, brazen thieves stole a box of 30 Kit-Kat chocolate bars before quite literally 'taking a break’ as they ransacked and robbed the student house on College Street of its contents.

In between kicking through doors, trying on clothes and testing moisturisers and make-up, the cocky criminals audaciously sat down and cooked themselves up a fish supper and brewed a cup of tea. They also had time to down a quarter bottle of vodka before casually making their getaway.

The entire incident has left the victims shaken and upset, prompting three of the four residents, teenage girls attending Cavan Institute, to move out in search of “safer” accommodation.

'Strange’

“Just walking around the place that first time after we got the call, it was really strange. The doors were hanging off and our stuff was thrown everywhere,” Robyn Hinkley says of the scene upon entering their ransacked College Street home.

“Just to think these people were in our rooms, rifling through really personal things. Then to have to sleep in those rooms again, it didn’t feel right.”

Robyn and best-friend Katie Lee, both from Longford, finished secondary school together before enrolling at Cavan Institute. Filled with high-hopes, their first three-weeks in Cavan Town got off to a bad start after Robyn had also earlier had her purse stolen on a night out.

Robyn and Katie spoke to The Anglo-Celt on Monday afternoon as they packed their remaining belongings before moving out. One room mate had already left, while a fourth remains saying, “I’ll wait and see”.

The students had just finished college for the week and returned home for the weekend when the burglary occurred.

Katie was informed of the incident by gardaí who called her on the phone at work.

“At first I thought it was a joke,” she recalls. “I started laughing at them but that was how we found out about it.”

The thieves gained entry by forcing a back patio door open some time between Friday and Saturday, September 23-24. The disturbance was discovered by a maintenance man who called to the house on the Saturday afternoon only to find the front door jarred. Moving to the rear of the property, the handy man found the back door open and the front door pressed shut with a chair rammed up against it.

'Really weird’

The surreal situation for the young girls took a twist towards the bizarre when they arrived to survey the damage and loss.

Finding smashed doors as they went, the girls discovered a large mirror taken from one of the rooms and evidence that the robbers had been trying on their clothes too.

“They took some of my clothes, some of my shoes, razors, hot water bottles, perfume, they used my moisturiser, they tried on my clothes,” Katie explained to the Celt.

“It’s really weird! The doors were all locked so to see all the frustration and anger they put into kicking them doors, I just thought - what the hell is wrong with these people?”

Robyn too found a plethora of otherwise unusual items missing following the burglary.

“They took my speakers, which were pretty much brand new, and really expensive. They took my hair straighteners, clothes, my underwear!”

She adds the girls are still only accounting for the extent of their loss as they attempt to apply a sense of normality to their daily lives once again.

“They took my iron. I went to go iron my clothes one of the days, and no iron. They’d stolen it!”

Garda appeal

Gardaí are continuing their investigations into the matter, and are due to return to the property to collect evidence left behind, including the now empty vodka bottle, a cigarette and a grey sweatshirt jumper.

“We believe there was a girl with the gang also. Why else would they have been trying on clothes, and using our make-up, high heels and stuff. Definitely there were some lads there to kick down the doors, but then a girl as well,” suggests Robyn.

“I don’t know if it’s all fully sunk in or not. We were really frustrated the day we came down to see the place after everything was missing,” says Katie. “We’re moving out now. To somewhere different, safer. We’re happier that way. One of the others has moved back home and is going to commute now. We just want to put all this behind us and move on.”