92-year-old woman targeted in home invasion by gang posing as gardaí

The shocking incident unfolded at her rural home near Myshall, Co Carlow at around 11am last Friday, when the pensioner drove from the village to her house.

The “alert” grandmother-of-14 noticed that a car was following her at a slow speed as she made her home on a local country road and she became suspicious.

As she drove into her yard, the other car – understood to be a Nissan Note model – also pulled up and a man got out of the vehicle.

Wearing a Covid facemask, he approached the elderly lady and pretended he was a garda who was warning rural homeowners about a recent spate of burglaries in the area.

As he distracted the elderly lady, his masked accomplice gained entry to the home and carried out a search for valuable items.

However, when the pensioner became suspicious and told the man - posing as a garda - to leave and attempted to retreat into her property, he grabbed her handbag and fled with his accomplice in a car driven by a third man.

After the burglars fled the scene, the woman managed to alert authorities using an emergency alarm in her property and gardaí quickly arrived on the scene.

A source explained: “ He (the criminal) was saying that he was a garda and attempted to show some type of badge. He said they were in the area to give her a warning about burglaries in the area.

“In fairness to the elderly lady, she was having none of it and has said that she never believed he was a garda and told him as much.

“At this stage, he seems to have got frustrated and made a swipe to get her handbag which was under her arm.

“But she resisted and retreated back into the hallway of her house and it was at that stage that he grabbed the handbag which contained a small amount of cash but not the victim’s pension thankfully,” the source added.

The entire incident is believed to have lasted for around 10 minutes and the woman was physically unharmed.

The raider, who sneaked into her home, managed to carry out a quick search of the property but it is understood that nothing of significance was stolen there.

The two criminals who interacted with the woman were wearing black and white Covid facemasks and it is understood that all three men involved in the crime are aged in their late 30s or early 40s.

When contacted by Independent.ie, a male relative of the 92-year-old woman praised the work of the gardaí and the support provided to their family by the local community.

“Everyone has been great and she is not doing too bad at all. This could have been a lot worse but she is okay.

“She was able to go to Mass the other day and she is still driving around,” the man who did not wish to be named said.

There have been no arrests so far in the investigation by Carlow gardaí who are appealing for information.

However CCTV has been gathered and the property has been forensically examined.

This is just the latest incident in which very elderly women have been targeted.

Earlier this month, an 86-year-old woman who was pushed into a wheelie bin after being mugged on the street in Ranelagh, south Dublin.

The Ranelagh incident happened just over a week after a 93-year-old woman and her two sons aged in their 60’s were targeted in an aggravated burglary in Co Roscommon.