Crimecall appeal tonight on ballyconnell po armed raid

Gardai will tonight renew their appeal for information about the armed raid at Ballyconnell Post Office that took place in September.

At around 9.20am on Monday, September 7, machete and gun wielding raiders thought to have local knowledge made their escape from the post office with a large sum of money.

One threatened to cut the postmaster’s head off.

Tonight gardaí on RTÉ’s Crimecall will appeal for witnesses or anyone with information about the incident to contact them.

The car was found burnt out on the Killeshandra Road about five miles from Ballyconnell.

A reconstruction of the robbery will be shown on the RTÉ programme tonight along with CCTV images of the two raiders.

However, the raiders had not legislated for traffic at the junction and immediately revised their escape route. Their silver Nissan Almera had been facing in the direction of Belturbet but with large lorries encroaching on the junction, they instead veered off towards Bawnboy.

A Garda spokesperson said that the men then drove along on a series of back roads to reach a second getaway car, in the townland of Skealon, just off the road leading to Carrigallen. The first getaway car was set ablaze to dispose of incriminating evidence.

Around 10 customers had just left the post office when the raiders struck. The sum of cash they made off with had yet to be determined at the time of going to press.

Despite enduring what must have been a terrifying ordeal, the postmaster, Brian Fee was back in work the next day. He didn’t wish to comment on the incident.

The raider carrying the gun was described by eye witnesses as “very burly” and well over six feet tall. The criminals’ ability to immediately change escape route, locate the second getaway vehicle using rural roads and that they possibly had local knowledge will form part of the investigation.