OAP's floorboards ripped up by thieves

Sean McMahon

An 80-year-old pensioner has been left feeling vulnerable after burglars tore apart his Belturbet home in a frenzied scramble for valuables, ripping apart cabinets and even tearing up floorboards.

“I would not like this to happen to anyone else,' says Kevin Reilly as he shows the Celt the wreckage of his Lisnamaine home where he has happily lived almost all his life. 'It has left me worried and frightened. I was lucky I was away. It is very sad to get to 80 years of age and be afraid in your own home.”
Mr Reilly was attending a near-by market when the gang of raiders struck on Saturday morning, May 27.
The clearly shocked Mr Reilly told The Anglo-Celt they raiders made off with two antique items, but added that he was in no fit state to know exactly what else they may have taken. He wisely never keeps any money in the house and added: “I was lucky I was away at the time”. Mr Reilly confirmed that he has a legally held shotgun.
The burglars tore all presses and drawers asunder in every room in the house, dumping the contents on the floor as they searched. Carpets were turned upside down and floorboards ripped up.
The raid took place between somewhere between 11.30am and 1.45pm, when Mr Reilly returned home. He immediately noticed that the lock on the back door of the house had been professionally drilled to gain entry. They calmly placed the remnants of the lock on the windowsill beside the door. All sense of calmness left as soon as they entered the home where this friendly man had lived almost 70 years, free from any break-ins.
Understandably, Kevin did not “sleep at all well” the night after this terrifying episode.
“I’m only getting over the shock slowly,” said Mr Reilly, a diabetic who is on twenty tablets a day.
He says it's a “scary feeling, knowing that there were raiders in my home”.
“Elderly people like myself are living in fear and dread in their own homes – I am living here since I quit school in 1951. There never came in anybody before.”
One of the criminals who targeted Mr Reilly's home appears to have been so busy ransacking the kitchen area, that he dropped a sharply pointed knife on the floor. The gardaí took this weapon away for forensic examination.
Upon finding the scene of devestation Kevin immediately contacted the gardaí and they arrived very promptly. A garda spokesman told the Celt that a scene of crime examination was carried out on the house together with a full print examination of the scene.
Their active investigation is continuing and they are appealing for information from the public, particularly if anyone saw a vehicle acting suspiciously in the area on that Saturday morning. Any information to the gardaí at Ballyconnell, telephone (049) 9526 102.