As he pulls the shutters down on a 51-year career in retail, Joe McLaughlin says he “loved” his time behind the counter, even if one traumatic incident still haunts him.
In February 2010, McLaughlin was returning to his Co Louth home early in the morning after walking the dogs to get ready to open his shop in Castlebellingham, which contained a post office branch.
“I had just put my key in the door when I felt something shoved into the back of my head,” he says. “I turned around and there were three masked men with a gun who told me to walk into the house and not to do anything stupid.
“They said not to press any buttons or alarms, that they only wanted the money from the post office and didn’t want to hurt us. As I was walking in the door, Tess came out of the bathroom and nearly passed out when she saw the men. They tied her to a chair, stood behind her and put a gun to the back of her head before taking a Polaroid picture.”
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McLaughlin (65) says the men ordered them to “write down instructions for the postmistress” regarding the money in the safe and handed him the picture of Tess as proof.
“I was told I would never see my Tess again unless I got them the contents of the safe.”
He adds: “At the time, the shop opened at 6.30am but the post office didn’t open until 9am, so I had to serve customers and suppliers with a smile and pretend nothing was wrong for almost 2½ hours. All the time knowing that Tess was being held hostage and I didn’t know what was happening to her.”
McLaughlin later showed the postmistress the photograph and instructions and she put about €105,000 into a bin bag, which he was told to leave in a nearby laneway. “Such was the ordeal that I collapsed on the street minutes later,” he says. “The gang was never found despite exhaustive attempts by the gardaí.
“What was I to do? The woman I loved was being threatened with her life. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life waiting for the gardaí to find Tess and tell me she was okay.”
[ Post office owner tells of kidnap ordealOpens in new window ]
A spate of so-called tiger kidnappings, mostly targeting bank and post office workers, occurred about 15 years ago. When it became more difficult to carry out a bank robbery or cash-in-transit heist – after security was significantly improved – gangs opted to target employees, kidnapping their loved ones, and effectively holding them to ransom.
An Garda Síochána worked with senior management in the banks and An Post around security protocols and the importance of adhering to them during live incidents. When the crimes started to become more frequent, there were a number of cases of money being paid to gangs before gardaí were even aware the kidnapping was under way.
However, under protocols then put in place, the Garda directed that no money was ever to leave a post office or bank for payment to a gang without the force being informed. Once gardaí were made aware, they assumed control of the response to the kidnappings. As a result of those tactics, several tiger kidnappings were foiled and a number of gang members identified and charged, with the crimes then becoming less frequent.
The ordeal still weighs on McLaughlin but it did not stop him from opening another shop in Kilsaran, albeit without a post office. “You can’t let people like that win, you just have to get on with it and I just love retail and meeting people.”
McLaughlin left school in his native Belfast and served his time with a butcher before moving to Dundalk, where he borrowed money from the credit union to start a mobile shop business. He sold bunting, flags, hats and T-shirts during Ireland’s maiden World Cup appearance in 1990, a time he remembers as being “great craic”.
He then opened his first shop in Dundalk and every five years after that moved on elsewhere to take on the challenge of building another business from scratch. “I think it was about meeting new people all the time,” he says. “It’s quite simple. If you get on with people, they will get on with you.”
The retail business changed hugely over the years, with independent shops coming under pressure due to the clout of the multiples. But McLaughlin insists people still crave a personal touch and service with a smile, something he believes is disappearing.
“These wee shops are dying on their feet and if you are lucky enough to have customers, you have to look after them,” he says. “There are too many places these days that employ shop assistants who won’t even say hello, goodbye or thank you and it galls me to walk in to a shop and see someone behind the counter on their mobile phone.”
After more than a half century in the game, and the associated ups and downs, McLaughlin feels he is “very lucky with the people I’ve met” and the support he has received. “I’m sad of course to be retiring, but watch this space, there’s always another chapter to Joe.”
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