IN a back room of Donnybrook Garda station in Dublin yesterday some were tearful as they searched an array of rings, gold chains, watches. "I know it happens all the time, but said a middle aged woman, the sentence tapering to a quaver. She gazed through the booty as though a missing loved one might be found there.
"The heartbreak of this," she continued. "It's terrible." She spotted a camera. "Johnny," she said to her teenage son, "that's like your one." But it wasn't his. The family was last burgled a month ago. "And before that as well," she said.
The woman from Palmerstown had been burgled "five or six times". All her jewellery, "everything, videos, anything of value", had been taken, she said. None of it was in Donnybrook, however.
Moments earlier an elderly, white haired woman with a stick became giddy when she saw a pearl necklace. But that soon evaporated. The clasp was different from the one stolen from her. Another woman began to sob while she looked at the jewellery. She became embarrassed and apologised.
"Probably some of them are reliving the horror of the burglary," thought Det Sgt Felix Lunney. He and Det Garda Jody Crowe ushered the people in. There was the woman who came in desperation. She was looking for two rings, a chain, and a watch. They were not insured. She hadn't reported the robbery. She hadn't told her husband. One ring there looked just like one of hers. "It had a lovely diamond cluster, a bit like that, only bigger," she said, pointing. But she left disappointed.
Altogether, there were seven engagement rings, 31 dress rings, 15 assorted rings, 20 bracelets draped over a chair back, 31 chains, seven ladies' watches, and 10 men's watches. Then there were mountain bikes, TV sets, video recorders, a chain saw, a drill, a lawnmower, and so on.
All had been stolen in south Co Dublin, "from bedsits, flats, and dwelling houses" Det Sgt Lunney said. People can reclaim them at Donnybrook Garda station today and tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
