Garda team investigating post office robberies in Cork arrest man

The arrest was made after another attempted raid on a business premises on South Douglas Rd at around 12.30pm on Friday.

The arrested man is being questioned by detectives at the Bridewell Garda Station. Picture: Denis Minihane

Gardaí are questioning a man about three armed raids on two post offices in Cork city in the last week in which customers were threatened at knifepoint.

The man, 49, with an address on the southside of Cork city, was arrested by two senior detectives from Anglesea Street garda station about 30-minutes after a masked raider threatened a woman at knifepoint in the South Douglas Road post office, exactly one week after it was robbed in similar circumstances.

A man wearing a Covid facemask, a beanie-type hat and a hoodie, entered the post office at around 12.30pm, armed with a knife.

He threatened a woman in her 20s, who was standing in the queue, allegedly putting the knife to her neck, and demanded staff hand over cash.

They managed to raise the alarm and the man fled empty-handed as gardaí rushed to the scene.

The woman, originally from the Czech republic, was not physically injured but was extremely traumatised by the incident.

The two senior detectives spotted a man sitting in an SUV parked about 500-metres from the post office which, thanks to an extensive examination of CCTV footage and analysis of vehicle movements, matched the description of a vehicle which had been linked to an armed robbery at Ballintemple post office on Wednesday.

They approached the man and detained him until colleagues arrived. A knife was recovered, and it, the vehicle and several items of clothing have been seized for forensic examination.

The man was taken to the Bridewell garda station where he was detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, which allows gardaí detain suspects for up to 24-hours.

He is being questioned about the three raids on the two post offices since last Friday. The post offices are within one kilometre of each other and are close to the suspect's address in Mahon.

It is understood that the suspect is not known to gardaí and detectives were last night trying to establish the motive for the robberies.

Last Friday, a man wearing a Covid facemask, hat and hoodie, entered the South Douglas Road post office at around midday, grabbed a man in the queue, and threatened him at knifepoint before demanding staff hand over cash.

He fled on foot with a substantial quantity of cash, but detectives believe that he may have parked his car a few hundred metres in the area, and stayed in the area for some time after the robbery.

Then on Wednesday, a man wearing a Covid facemask, a hat and hoodie entered Ballintemple post office armed with a knife, threatened a customer at knifepoint, and fled with a smaller quantity of money.

The raider returned to the South Douglas Road post office yesterday but fled empty-handed.