Muintir na Tíre urges elderly not to hoard money during Covid-19 outbreak
The head of Muintir na Tíre’s community alert in the southern region has warned pensioners not to hoard money in their homes during the Covid-19 crisis because gangs are readying themselves to carry out burglaries once the lockdown is eased.
Diarmuid Cronin said he is concerned that many more pensioners are keeping cash in their homes during these difficult times.
“It is fair to assume that whenever the present clampdown eases, the burglary rate will rise,” Mr Cronin said.
“I would advise pensioners that taking lots of cash home is an absolute no no,” he added.
Mr Cronin said the side effect of the current lockdown is a drop in spending opportunities for the elderly, many of whom are cocooned in their own homes.
While some pensioners will venture out to collect their pensions at their local post office, others will have nominated a relative or close friend to pick it up for them.
Mr Cronin said pensioners still collecting their money could make themselves a target for opportunist thieves.
He said his advice to all pensioners is to open up a post office account, if they don’t already have one, and to deposit any cash they don’t need in it.
“A post office savings account is easy to open and will save their money and eliminate any risk to them,” he said.
In addition to protecting their cash, Mr Cronin also issued advice to pensioners about protecting other valuables.
“These days of quietly surviving during lockdown gives them an opportunity to lessen their exposure to the risk of burglary and the robbery of their property,” he said.
“Simple basic common sense tells us that it’s a ‘no-brainer’ to have the make, model and serial number written down should an item of property happen to be stolen,” Mr Cronin said.
He said this makes it easier for gardaí to reunite the stolen property with its owner should they recover it.
“Importantly, it will also enable the gardaí to link the criminal in whose possession a stolen item is found, to the crime,” he said.
Mr Cronin said there is an obvious “deterrence factor” if everybody does this as he has no doubt it will cause a decrease in house burglaries.
He pointed out that Muintir na Tíre’s Community Alert has introduced a logbook to record property details.
A version of it has also been integrated into the Text Alert smartphone application known as CAIRDE.
