Hunt for three men after woman escapes kidnappers
Gardaí were tonight hunting three men who abducted a 62-year-old post office worker from outside her home during a botched tiger kidnapping.
The victim, who was snatched outside her north Dublin apartment, escaped her captors in the early hours of this morning when one of the gang fell asleep after taking drugs.
Mary Noone, from Grace Park Court in Whitehall, was bundled into the rear of a white van at around 6pm yesterday evening by the men, who were all wearing balaclavas.
The victim, who works at North Strand Post Office, was taken across the city to a car park at Salthill Apartments, near Dun Laoghaire.
She was forced to hand over keys to the post office before two of the masked men made off in a car while the third stayed behind to keep the woman captive.
She told investigating detectives the man took some pills through the night and eventually fell asleep. The woman escaped from the van at around 5.15am and made her way to one of the nearby apartments to raise the alarm.
A short time later she alerted officers at Dun Laoghaire Garda Station, sparking a follow-up operation during which armed units swooped on the van and the post office. Both were found empty.
The woman was in a distressed state after her 11-hour ordeal but was not physically injured, according to a garda source.
The van used by the gang, with a registration plate 98 OY 1553, was stolen last month in Glasnevin Industrial Estate. Detectives at Whitehall Garda Station have asked anyone with information to get in touch.
There have been a number of so-called tiger kidnappings in north Dublin over the past few months in which a bank or supermarket employee, and sometimes his or her family, is held by armed gangs overnight and forced to hand over cash from his or her place of work.
John Kane, general secretary of the Irish Postmasters Union, warned his members may be forced into leaving their jobs because of the increased security risk.
"We are obviously very concerned. Postmasters and postmistresses are already living very stressful lives with the threat of being raided on the premises during the day," he said.
"We were hoping we would escape these sort of attacks but now our members have to be concerned about their safety for the other 16 hours of the day they are not in work.
"It could even lead to some of them considering whether they want to continue working as postmasters or postmistresses because the risk is so great."
Mr Kane contacted management at An Post today about the abduction and is to hold talks in the coming days about what extra security measures can be implemented.
"We're not sure if anything can be done about it. We will be exploring every avenue open to us," he said.
