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to and fro. Gilligan and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang were cleaning out Nilfisk, stealing the vacuum cleaners that had just arrived. When every one of the boxed vacuums was loaded, the gang left, vanishing as fast as they had arrived. The alarm was raised almost immediately afterwards when McClory managed to press a panic button in the office.
    Gardaí arriving on the scene set about making inquiries, but they had only one suspect in mind: John Gilligan.
    It was inconceivable for Gilligan to travel far with such a massive cargo of stolen goods. Gardaí would be mounting checkpoints looking for the stolen vacuums, so he arranged to store the vacuums in a warehouse located nearby, at Unit 22, Weatherwell Industrial Estate in Clondalkin. From here, the vacuum cleaners would be sold off in small lots by the gang, one of whom was a young criminal and new addition to the gang, 23-year-old David Weafer.
    The Nilfisk heist was to work as follows. The loot would be divided in seven; Gilligan and two others would take the lion’s share, while the rest, like Weafer, would receive a smaller amount of vacuums to sell themselves. Gilligan correctly envisaged that he would not be able to fence the load all at once because Nilfisk would issue a general warning or possibly offer a reward for the return of the goods. Therefore, whenever one of the gang wanted access to their share of the vacuums, they would ring Gilligan and arrange to meet. Gilligan held the keys because it was his hiding place and he would ensure that everyone got their fair share.
    Gilligan’s prediction that Nilfisk and the Garda Press Office would highlight the robbery proved correct. Two days after the raid, the Irish Independent carried an article warning housewives to beware of door-to-door salesmen selling cheap vacuum cleaners. Nilfisk’s managing director, Pat Murphy, told the Independent that the vacuums would not be sold through established outlets.
    ‘It would be very difficult to get them into electrical shops. The only alternative would be door to door. Somebody somewhere should be able to give us a clue. I am as intrigued as you are as to how the gang is going to get rid of these machines. I would love to know what they are going to do with them,’ he said.
    The vacuum cleaners were being sold door to door, but faster than the gardaí could have imagined. Weafer in particular was selling more than the others, more than his allocation, unknown to Gilligan, who had given him the keys of Unit 22 to help himself. Fearing that he would ‘vanish’ should Gilligan find out about his ‘sales drive’, he leaked information about where the stolen vacuums were being kept to the gardaí. If they raided Unit 22 and found the vacuums, Gilligan would never find out about his double-cross. But the gardaí wanted Gilligan, and so placed Unit 22 under surveillance with the intention of arresting him red-handed with the stolen property.
    Weafer co-operated and arranged to meet Gilligan at Unit 22 a week later, on 9 January. Gilligan didn’t want to go near the haul—the gardaí were running a major operation looking for the vacuums and would no doubt be monitoring his movements. But Weafer insisted, saying he needed to get more vacuums to sell, he needed the cash. The two met at Weatherwell Industrial Estate, which, unknown to Gilligan, was surrounded by armed detectives.
    On approaching the warehouse door, Gilligan became suspicious. Years of avoiding the gardaí had taught him to take various precautions. In this case, he had affixed a small wooden stick to the side of the entrance door which would snap should anyone but he enter. The stick had snapped, thereby indicating someone had been inside.
    He turned to Weafer and asked if he had been near the vacuums, taking more than his fair share. Weafer denied this and said he was in a hurry to return home. Gilligan took a small key from his pocket and opened the lock that secured the door and the two went inside. The