A LOCAL resident and businessman has appealed to members of the public for information in relation to a spate of burglaries in his estate, which saw his four-year-old son’s savings robbed from his house.

Rob Murphy, who is well-known as an organiser of the Strawberry Fest in 2011 and 2012, was in Spain on business when his house was broken into on Thursday last. A large quantity of jewellery along with a two-foot high Coke bottle filled with his son Alfie’s savings.

Rob said: “There would have been about €600 in it. We were always throwing change and a few notes here and there into it for him. Yvonne and I are getting married in September so he was trying to save money to go to Mammy and Daddy’s wedding.”

Rob added that he understood a number of other houses in the area were also hit by burglars that night and that it was time the town took a stand against the ongoing burglary epidemic.

“Everyone is sick of it at this stage. So many people have been hit and we need to take a stand against it. Your property is your own property and no one has the right to walk into your house at 7:30 p.m. in the evening and take it. Burglaries are rampant at the moment and we have to start standing up against it.”