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19 August 2011
Last updated at 03:55 ET
A woman and teenage boy have been rescued in County Monaghan after they were kidnapped from their west Belfast home.
An armed gang forced their way into the house of an employee of security firm Brinks-Mat at 22:00 BST Wednesday and took his wife and son hostage.
The employee was forced to go to work and hand over £200,000 to the gang.
His wife and son were taken to Castleblaney by the thieves and were freed by Irish police on Thursday.
Paul Reynolds, RTE's crime correspondent, said the man was held at gunpoint from the Wednesday night to the Thursday morning when he was forced to go to work by the gang.
He then made a number of cash pickups throughout Thursday before handing over more than £200,000 to the gang.
The woman and teenage boy were taken from Belfast to Mullyash, near Castleblayney, in the back of a van. They were then locked in a shed.
The kidnappers then set the van set alight. The fire was spotted by someone in the area who contacted the Irish police.
The woman and her son were found at about 20:00 BST on Thursday.
The man at the centre of the raid works as a driver for Brinks-Mat, a company which collects and delivers large sums of cash to banks and other financial institutions in Northern Ireland.
The family were not injured but have been severely traumatised by their ordeal.
Both gardai and the PSNI are investigating.
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An armed gang forced their way into the house of an employee of security firm Brinks-Mat at 22:00 BST Wednesday and took his wife and son hostage.
The employee was forced to go to work and hand over £200,000 to the gang.
His wife and son were taken to Castleblaney by the thieves and were freed by Irish police on Thursday.
Paul Reynolds, RTE's crime correspondent, said the man was held at gunpoint from the Wednesday night to the Thursday morning when he was forced to go to work by the gang.
He then made a number of cash pickups throughout Thursday before handing over more than £200,000 to the gang.
The woman and teenage boy were taken from Belfast to Mullyash, near Castleblayney, in the back of a van. They were then locked in a shed.
The kidnappers then set the van set alight. The fire was spotted by someone in the area who contacted the Irish police.
The woman and her son were found at about 20:00 BST on Thursday.
The man at the centre of the raid works as a driver for Brinks-Mat, a company which collects and delivers large sums of cash to banks and other financial institutions in Northern Ireland.
The family were not injured but have been severely traumatised by their ordeal.
Both gardai and the PSNI are investigating.
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