Andrew Carey
AS THE demands of Christmas shopping intensifies, thousands of euro worth of goods that were stolen to satisfy the needs of an inner city Christmas Club have been uncovered by Gardai at two houses on the Southside of Limerick city.
Following complaints that a Limerick store had been regularly targeted by a particular shoplifter during morning trading, Gardai at Henry Street set up a surveillance operation to uncover the identity of the thief.
Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan told the Limerick Post that detectives observed a male emerge from a store he had entered earlier.
He was in possession of a number of items that had not been paid for. The male was followed to an address in city and Gardai obtained a search warrant.
Upon their return, Gardai discovered a large quantity of goods ranging from children’s toys to electrical items and cosmetics to jewellery.
Asecond neighbouring house was searched under warrant for detectives to uncover what was described as “a treasure throve of goods” in the house. It is estimated that the goods seized were valued in excess of €6,000.
Following the operation, Chief Superintendent Sheahan said what was discovered was a “steal to order type of Christmas Club” as a large degree of documentation and other evidence was found linking the perpetrators of the thefts to the “customers” who were paying off small amounts for the items in the lead up to Christmas.
A number of arrests were made and the State are understood to be pursuing prosecutions through the courts.
