Gardaí deploy armed unit after man tries to knock down family home with digger

The man’s family were understood to have been left terrified by the incident, in what had been the second major disturbance caused by the man on the day.

He had earlier buried his own car in a forest with a digger for reasons gardaí are still trying to outline.

And when gardaí called in response to the report later that night that the man was trying to knock the family home with a digger he began threatening the officers with a machete.

Matters were only calmed after the gardaí deployed its Armed Service Unit (ASU), its dog unit and the helicopter to the scene in response to the machete threat.

The man was eventually tasered, before he was arrested and taken to Listowel Garda Station.

It marked the successful end of a long and anxious ordeal for both the man’s family and the gardaí over the course of both incidents on Monday.

Gardaí first attended after receiving a report the man had buried his own car in remote forestry. He reportedly had first damaged it with the digger.

When gardaí arrived at the scene the man fled deeper into the forest on foot.

Gardaí also moved fast to dig up the car to ensure it was empty.

The digger was then taken to a yard and locked up.

But the man returned later to the family home driving another digger – believed to have been stolen from a property nearby – before driving it at the family home in an attempt to knock it.

His machete threats to gardaí arriving at the scene prompted the major response operation involving the ASU, dog unit, helicopter and local gardaí who all managed to resolve the terrifying situation without major injury.

They had no option but to taser him in order to get matters under control.

The man was taken to Listowel Garda Station where he is still detained.