Hijacking of a Truck-driver, Ballymascanlon, Co. Louth on the 20/10/10.

On 20th October 2010 an armed raider hijacked an articulated truck as it brought a load of liquor from a depot in Armagh.

The driver was on the Greenore Road in Louth when a blue VW golf signalled for him to pull over.  Thinking something was wrong with his load he pulled in at an entrance to the nearby Ballymascanlon Hotel.

The man from the VW climbed into the truck’s cab and pulling a handgun from under his sleeve ordered the driver to turn the truck around.  The road was very busy, the hijacker very agitated and the driver extremely frightened.  It took some time to turn the truck.

The driver drove southbound on the M1 and took the Castleyblaney exit as instructed.  He was shaking badly and became too nervous to drive.  The hijacker tied him up and put him in the foot well, continuing on the journey north.

Eventually the truck stopped and it was probably then that the trailer was unloaded.  The truck driver was bound hand and foot and thrown into the boot of a car.  He was then driven at speed down bumpy roads and thrown out onto the side of the road in Carrickastuck in Hackball’s Cross. 

A local farmer helped him into his house where they called the Gardaí.

The trailer was since recovered at 7:30pm on the 22nd October 2010 in Donaghmoyne, Co. Monaghan.  The Tractor unit was recovered in Momoney in Monaghan at 3:55pm on 31/10/10.