A 16-year-old child who had been locked up by a gang carrying out an aggravated burglary on the home of a Dundalk business family, was able to escape and raise the alarm, it has emerged.
During the raid, the gang separated the children in the house from a woman who was the only adult in the house and made demands for money from her.
The family, which is involved in a popular Chinese restaurant chain in Dundalk, was named locally as the Wans. Mr Tim Wan is manager of the Jade Garden restaurant. The family declined to comment on the ordeal.
Garda Superintendent Gerry Curley confirmed the adult and three children were in the house in Belfry Gardens when a number of men “forced their way in,” at about 7.30pm.
A local resident said one of the children was a neighbour’s 10 -year-old who was tied up while the other two children, aged 12 and 16 were locked into a cupboard.
The gang was armed with what is understood to be hammers and they escaped with a quantity of cash which a garda spokesman said was “substantial.”
Supt Curley said “the people are involved in a local business in Dundalk.”
He added that, “Gardai are appealing for the public’s assistance and we would like to hear from anybody with any information or who saw anything suspicious in the Belfry Garden’s area between 7-8pm on Sunday to contact us.”
“This was a traumatic ordeal for the family involved,” he added.
The gang of up to four men left in a white Citroen Berlingo van.
Louth deputy Peter Fitzpatrick (FG) also lives in the estate and said, "this is an awful shock for the local community. Tim and Doris Wan have lived here for the last 15 years and they are great neighbours and a very quiet family."
Gardai were carrying out house to house enquiries yesterday and it is believed that a number of houses in the estate have CCTV installed.
The raid has similarities to last week’s raid on the home of a family in Castleblayney, county Monaghan who are also involved in running a Chinese restaurant.