Men before the courts charged with Westport car park theft

Three men have been charged in relation to a theft in a supermarket car park in Westport on March 16 last. They were arrested on Wednesday, March 25 in Midleton, Co Cork.

The Mayo News understands that Gardaí in Westport station acted quickly and were able to trace the movements of the suspects on CCTV before identifying the car they were travelling in.

The car was registered to a car rental company in Dublin airport, who fortunately had a GPS fitted into the vehicle. The car had been rented for 14 days.

The following morning Westport Gardaí travelled to Midleton and arrested the three men.

The men have been charged and are due before Midleton District Court on Thursday, April 9.

The arrests were timely as the car had been due to be returned to the car rental company the following day.

It is unknown at this stage if the three men intended to fly out that same day or may have planned to rent another car.

Distraction method
Separately, it is believed that thefts, which used a similar distraction method, are being investigated in at least seven other towns during the same two week period.

A common pattern in these thefts appears to be the targetting of elderly women, who were shopping alone and paying in cash.

They would wait until the lady had packed the shopping in her car and sat into the front seat before a well dressed man would tap on the window to say there was a problem with the back of her car.

The alleged modus operandi matches the method described by Islandeady’s Mary Moylette.

She had recognised the would-be thieves' modus operandi, “they lure you down to the back to get you to stoop down so the other person can work away.” She foiled the would-be robbers two days before the theft in Westport.

Having read a Mayo News report the previous month about a car theft in a car park, she remained vigilant when approached.

“That alerted me to keep my eyes peeled and keep looking and I kept watching each side. And he kept insisting on me to go down to look,” Mary told The Mayo News.

Thanks to Mary's quick thinking, no theft occurred and as a result, there was no offence committed so no charges will follow in relation to it.