Longford family left devastated as brazen gang carry out daring early morning raid
A south Longford farmer has told of how her family’s lives have been turned upside down after brazen thieves stole several thousand euros worth of machinery during a daring early morning raid.
Shirley O'Halleran said they were still coming to terms with the events of last Saturday morning at their free range egg producing farm on the outskirts of Kenagh.
The incident, part of which was captured on CCTV prior to a number of cameras being disabled, resulted in the theft of almost €10,000 in high end farm machinery and power tools.
Shirley said footage taken from the scene shows two male suspects entering the farm via a back entrance at around 1am.
The pair are believed to have sought refuge in a ditch minutes later after Shirley’s husband, Derek inadvertently disturbed both assailants when returning to the farm on a tractor at around 1:15am.
Over the course of the next three or more hours, the duo proceeded to rummage through a number of sheds and outdoor holdings before making off at around 4:30am.
Shirley said while gardaí have commenced an investigation behind the circumstances of last weekend, she remains fully convinced the raid was meticulously planned by a well oiled criminal gang.
“These two people could be seen walking to the farm before they disabled the CCTV and to have taken what they did, the quad, the tools, they took drums of diesel and empty drums so they must have had access to a vehicle,” she said.
Shirley remarked how the choice of both and possibly more suspects to stay on the property without any nervousness or worry at being caught illustrated the experience and criminal know-how of those involved.
“They had absolutely no fear at all because they were on the farm from 1am to 4am.
“The sheer arrogance, the cheek of them to spend that amount of time on the farm. We have two german shepherd dogs that are allowed in the house area but not the farm so they are used to people coming and going and they didn't pass any heed.
"It's obvious they scoped out the farm because they only disabled the cameras that were facing them directly and didn't touch the ones that were in other areas.
“They definitely had knowledge, whether it was local knowledge I don't know. They had hoods on and ran when they saw the tractor coming.”
The Longford farmer also spoke of her unbridled frustration at last weekend’s incident, saying its fallout has brought with it untold economic and day to day hardship for the family.
“I am more upset today than I was the day it happened,” she said.
“It's so hard because myself and my husband work 75 to 80 hours a week, our son Keith works full time on the farm and our daughter Rebecca commutes from Dublin to work on the farm as well.
“I just don’t know what we are going to do.”