A post office robbery was averted yesterday after a criminal standing guard over a kidnapped post mistress injected himself with drugs and fell asleep, allowing her to escape.
The woman (62) managed to alert gardaí in Monkstown, Dublin, where she had been held captive, at about 5am yesterday morning and a major security operation swung into action.
The post office where the woman works on the North Strand in Dublin's north inner city was surrounded by armed gardaí who believed two of the three-man gang may have gone there to unload the safe.
The detectives waited on the men but neither appeared, and all three gang members were still at large last night.
The post mistress's ordeal began just after 6pm on Tuesday when she was abducted from outside her home at Grace Park Court, Beaumont, Dublin. She was bundled into the back of a white van by three masked men.
She was then driven around for a period before being taken to the Salthill apartment complex across the city in Monkstown. She was held in the back of the van, which was parked in an underground car park.
The woman has told gardaí that at some point in the early hours two of the three attackers left her alone with the third man. After some time he injected himself with heroin and passed out.
She escaped at about 5am and immediately alerted gardaí. However, when the team of armed officers reached the location where the van was parked they found it empty.
The Garda helicopter was alerted, but a pre-dawn search for the missing man yielded nothing. Meanwhile, a major covert security operation was put in place around the post office.
The other two attackers are believed to have taken the keys for the post office from the post mistress. When neither man appeared at the scene the alert was called off.
The attack is the latest in a series of so-called tiger robberies, involving the abduction and false imprisonment of workers with access to large sums of cash.
The Postmasters' Union last night said that while An Post had worked to improve security, many post office workers feared being targeted. "A lot of our people are apprehensive about being held captive in their homes," said general secretary John Kane.
Garda technical experts spent much of yesterday examining the post office and the scene of the abduction in Beaumont. The van used in the attack, registration number 98 OY 1553, was also being technically examined.
The vehicle was stolen last month from an industrial estate in north Dublin. Gardaí are anxious to speak to anybody with information as to its whereabouts in recent weeks.
Gardaí at Whitehall, who are leading the investigation, can be contacted on 01-6664500.
