BY BRENDAN LAWRENCE A CARLOW shopkeeper whose store has been subjected to repeated robberies in recent times beat an armed raider out of his shop with a brush last week. Damien Callinan of Callinan’s foodstore in Graiguecullen says that he has had enough of these robberies and threats and insists that lowlife criminals will not put him out of business. The shocked raider, who threatened the staff with a hammer at the busy foodstore in Graiguecullen, fled empty-handed after the frustrated Damien bravely whacked the thug with a brush. Damien was behind the counter in his store at 7.55am on Thursday 28 January when a man wearing a green hat and with his face covered in a scarf entered the shop wielding a hammer. “Before I knew it, he was leaning over the counter demanding money,” said Damien, who told The Nationalist that he has lost count of the number of times his store has now been targeted by criminals. “I tried to pull him off the counter and he threatened me with the hammer. I got out of his way then, because he could have let fly with the hammer, so I backed off and put a sweet stand between me and him. Then I got a brush and gave him a belt, and he went off with himself. He didn’t get the contents of the till, but I think he’s someone from the area. He knows this shop,” added Damien. The Graiguecullen store has been targeted by criminals on numerous occasions in the last few years and Damien now finds himself wondering what he can do to put a stop to this threat which now hangs over him everyday he comes to work. “What can I do?” he asks, “you have no peace anymore. The two lads who robbed us a few years back are out and about, walking the streets. The lad who drove the getaway car got off on probation and didn’t even lose his licence. “It’s ridiculous; it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s gone so bad it’s a joke, but I’m not going to let them put me out of business. “But then what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to lie down and let them have it? It has to stop,” he added.