Parish priest’s house is robbed while he says Mass

GARDAI have strongly advised priests, householders and anyone else handling even small amounts of cash, to be on their guard for ‘no conscience’ thieves, following a robbery at a parochial house last weekend in the South Galway area.

The opportunist thieves are targeting churches, priests’ houses, groups of parked cars and houses left unlocked for super-quick ‘in-and-out’ thefts.

Last Saturday evening, between 6.05 and 6.40, a lone male thief entered the Parochial House in Labane, as the Parish Priest, Fr. Joe Roche, was saying a vigil Mass in the adjacent St. Teresa’s Church.

The thief got away with a small amount of cash – slightly over €100 – in Mass envelopes, and actually walked by the priest, as he returned to the presbytery following a short chat that he had with his congregation near the main door of the church.

Gardaí have described the thief as tall with black hair – he wore a blue jacket and looked to be in his late 20s. He is thought to have left the area in a black Toyota Avensis with blacked-out rear windows, and possibly with a registration number beginning with 04.

On the same night – in possibly a theft carried out by the same person – an unoccupied house was broken into at Blackgarden, Craughwell, with close on €600 in cash stolen, as well as to two iPhones worth in the region of €1,000.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.