€20,000 reward announced to solve the great Laois heist a year on

A €20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the recovery of a stolen container of Lego in Laois.

It is a year since a shipping container filled with Lego, estimated to be worth over €50,000, was stolen from near Clonaslee.

It was packed with five tons of donated used Lego and schoolbooks, ready to be sent to Malawi in Africa to improve the futures of children living on a remote river island in extreme poverty. It was taken some time between February 2 and March 7.

Now new hopes are rising to find the container, with new information on the Laois crime, and a generous reward offered.

The €20,000 bounty is offered to anyone who can supply information leading to the recovery of the stolen shipping container, which has a unique numbered code, branded on the outside and inside.

The container was stolen from outside a house in Clonaslee in March 2025.

Ailbhe Joyce who with Evin has been collecting donations of Lego in the container since 2021 for the children of Chisi Island.

The contents had been donated by children and schools around Ireland, and were to be shipped out to the remote Chisi island in Malawi, to a project founded by Laois humanitarian Evin Joyce.

Evin has spent years teaching children on Chisi Island, and running humanitarian projects that help their whole community, founding his own registered charity to do so, called Ulemu.com

He is just as determined as ever to track down the callously stolen container, which Laois Gardaí described at the time as "a mean crime". See original story here.

“From day one, we knew this container couldn’t just vanish. We’ve received new information, which has been passed to An Garda Síochána. I hope this reward will come to the attention of people with key information to help us get it back.”

The €20,000 reward has been put forward by Cathal O’Connor who is also the leading donor to the charity. Cathal’s family business,  O’Connors Cabins, had originally donated the stolen container to the charity in 2021.

The stolen shipping container.

“The container and its contents are worth more than €50,000. It’s a pity that it’s necessary but if this reward money gets the Lego and school books to the children they were donated to, it will be well spent.” said O’Connor.

Evin described the terrible impact that the crime took on his good works.

“The theft of that container really set us back over the last year. Our donations shrunk by two thirds in 2025 in comparison with 2024. We’re not giving up on this,” he said.

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The container is 20 foot long and grey in colour. The container’s serial number, written in black writing is ‘SKIU 292388’. 

"Any container without a visible serial number should be reported to An Garda Síochana. Please call An Garda Síochana in Portlaoise at 057 8674100 if you have any information," Evin says.

Ulemu.com' has three overall objectives; to help extremely poor communities on Chisi Island to improve their children's health, education and nutrition. Donate to the Ulumu Gofundme account here.