Steep increase in number of burglaries across County Roscommon

There has been a steep increase in the number of burglaries in County Roscommon, a meeting of the county’s Joint Policing Committee heard last week

The news comes after Gardai confirmed that they are investigating four break-ins which took place in County Roscommon on Saturday evening week last.

At the Joint Policing Committee meeting Garda Superintendent John Fitzgerald indicated that there had been a 28 per cent increase in burglaries year to date. “That’s up from 25 in the same period last year to 32 this year. It is something that we are concerned about,” he said.

A special task force has been set up across the county which has been doing additional check points and high visibility patrols in high risk areas. Regionally, detective units are also on patrol, backed up by the traffic units and regional support units.

“We identified this rise last year in Roscommon and now we have identified it across the region,” he said.

Gardaí have confirmed that a sum of cash and a number of belongings were taken from a premises in a burglary that occurred at approximately 11.30 p.m. on Saturday week in the Kilteevan area. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.

Three burglaries took place on Saturday wek in the Ballintubber area at a time when each of the homes was unoccupied.

Two of the houses had been ransacked after intruders gained entry through windows. Nothing was taken in one of the incident while at this stage, it’s unknown if anything was stolen in the other break-in.

Meanwhile, extensive searches by gardaí have recovered the weapons used by masked men during a violent incident at a national youth boxing tournament in Castlerea on Friday, March 1st.

Following the attack involving machetes and slash-hooks, gardaí confirmed to the Roscommon Herald that the weapons were discovered close to a burnt-out white Audi car near Castleplunket. Gardaí carried out further searches in parts of the county last Wednesday.