Digger returned

A local businessman and charity worker is claiming that the PSNI stole his digger.

Owen Reel was speaking to Councillor Mickey Larkin about his ordeal in Jonesborough in which the PSNI confiscated his digger.

"I was in absolute disbelief when Mr Reel explained what happened to me. The operation to seize a supposed stolen digger is reminiscent of a script for an episode of the Keystone Cops," the Councillor said.

"Police, acting on information from England, swooped on the home of a local business man to recover a stolen mini-digger. Both the digger owner and his son were on site to reassure the PSNI that they had the wrong digger but nothing would persuade them of their mistake. 

"Even when the man who had sold the digger to the Reels eight years earlier arrived to confirm the status of the machine, no regard was taken. Over the next two days, as three South Armagh business men contemplated the ruination of their reputations, the PSNI fumbled from one cock-up to another. 

"On phoning the PSNI I was assured that the digger was being returned and that a mistake had been made. I was present when the machine arrived and accept that the police were apologetic to the Reel family, however there are many unanswered questions. The most obvious one is, where is the stolen digger? 

"I have no doubt that the criminals involved in the theft in England were laughing all the way to the bank as they watched the Reel family being hauled across the coals. Another question posed is why it takes so many PSNI personnel to attend a call out in South Armagh. 

"Tax payers are questioning the value for money in such instances. I would like to know the cost of this failed operation. At least three vehicles attended the lift, four attended the return and three attended the picking up of paper work from the plant sales company. Many man hours were expended on a wild goose chase. There was absolutely no need for such a huge police presence for what should have been a straightforward errand.

"The people of South Armagh are entitled to the same policing service as those living on the Malone Road and I will be hammering this point home to the local commander, the Policing Board and the Justice Minister."