AN Irish world record breaker has told of his terror after he was robbed of €2,000 in a motor scam.
Athlete Shane Healy, 51, believed that he would have been bundled into an open car boot if he didn’t hand over the cash during the terrifying incident at Tyrrelstown near Blanchardstown, Dublin on October 2.
Carer Shane, who represented Ireland in the 1996 Olympics and is the world record holder for the 1500m indoors for the over 50s, had travelled from his home in Co Louth to meet with the buyer of a Skoda Octavia, which had been advertised online.
He said: “The exhaust of my 2003 car had fallen off and I was looking to upgrade so I came across this car on line and rang the number.
“We struck up a rapport. The man was very plausible. I work as a carer and he said his wife was a carer too and was only getting rid of the car because she had won €15,000 in a Credit Union draw.
“I got the bus to meet him the next day. I got paid €1,000 in wages and I put another €1,000 on my credit card. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be scammed on an old car.
“When I got to the estate where he said he was living, he rang me and said he would be another 15 minutes as he wasn’t at home.”
MONEY HANDOVER
He continued: “Then he came out of a laneway and called me over. He asked to see the money as he said he had been messed about before but I wasn’t going to show any money before I had even seen the car.
“He pointed to a vehicle with the boot open and put me up against the wall, telling me to hand over the money.
“I froze. I was genuinely afraid and he was a big man compared to me. I really believed that I was going to be bundled into the boot of that car – which was nothing like a Skoda Octavia.
“When I handed over the money, he told me to keep walking to the car and that he’d be back in a minute. He never came back and I knew I’d been robbed straightaway.”
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When Shane rang the gardai, a number of neighbours approached him on the street and asked him if he was alright.
He added: “They said I was the tenth victim of similar scams.”
Gardai said they “received a report on the 4th October 2019 in relation to the theft of cash from a man in Blanchardstown. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.”