Thieves make off with cash from prison canteen .
LIMERICK , Ireland 1996-08-29
Thieves stole almost 2,000 Irish pounds ( $ 3,000 ) from the officers ' canteen of a Limerick jail on Thursday while warders slept in a room upstairs .
Police said the thieves intercepted a woman arriving to work at the canteen , forced her to open the safe where takings were kept and made off with the cash .
While the robbery was going on , several officers were asleep in a room over the canteen , which is in the grounds of the prison on Ireland 's southwest coast .