Neighbourhood Watch Merged Thread

daymobrew wrote: »

Multiple posts have said there is a big difference between a burglary and a robbery but none of them explained the difference.

While both terms can be interchanged, imo burglary generally means that a house was broken into and items stolen; the burglars and occupants did not meet.
In a robbery the burglars and occupants did interact. This is why there is a big difference.

It's actually not the difference (not that it matters that much, as stated, but for the sake of getting facts straight):

A burglary occurs when some form of trespassing is involved in the theft of goods, so 90% of reports here would be burglaries.

A robbery occurs when there is some kind of weapons or violence involved while carrying out a theft. So that's probably where you got slightly mixed up: generally any interaction of this nature would end up in some kind of physical confrontation.

A theft is the taking of goods not belonging to you (without force and without trespassing, so generally it's more applicable to a retail environment).

Hope that clears it up once-and-for-all!

chucknorris wrote: »

You're splitting hairs lads and ladies.

We're not arguing but thank you for your input.

Weirdest thing happened this morning.

So I came downstairs to go to work, and my dad asked me if I'd be around at about 9 tonight. So I assumed I would and he said could you hand these to the man at the door, I've filled out one for me and your brother.

They were two big, thick professional looking booklets. So I asked him what they were, and he said they were surveys from the National Roads Authority, and then they want to know when you're out of the house over the course of two days. SI gave him a "o.O", and he shows me a letter, which I didn't read, but it had "National Road Authority" in print at the top, but no logo, seal, watermark, anything else.

So I said I wasn't comfortable handing that to anyone as they're probably not real, and why would the NRA want to know when you're out of your house.

Now, he's a bit of a naive eejit, but that seems so sketch to me. Did anyone else get them?

JoePie wrote: »

Weirdest thing happened this morning.

So I came downstairs to go to work, and my dad asked me if I'd be around at about 9 tonight. So I assumed I would and he said could you hand these to the man at the door, I've filled out one for me and your brother.

They were two big, thick professional looking booklets. So I asked him what they were, and he said they were surveys from the National Roads Authority, and then they want to know when you're out of the house over the course of two days. SI gave him a "o.O", and he shows me a letter, which I didn't read, but it had "National Road Authority" in print at the top, but no logo, seal, watermark, anything else.

So I said I wasn't comfortable handing that to anyone as they're probably not real, and why would the NRA want to know when you're out of your house.

Now, he's a bit of a naive eejit, but that seems so sketch to me. Did anyone else get them?

let us know what the NRA say. Seems very bizarre to me.

Hi Fletch, i would definitly call nra, i rang 98fm when my caller said they were behind her and it confirmed she was lying. I had another run in with similar people last week, a foreign lady is now dropping her 2 children into littlepace with a sponsership card, sad really the little boy who called to me could barely talk, i tried to get info from him but could not leave my house as i was alone with 3 children on both occasions, and i could see them fly back to the car when confronted, have not seen them since. But please only sponser children you know at your front door as someone is obviously giving to them or she would not waste her time.

Yes Joepie, let us know what nra say

JoePie wrote: »

I've asked a few lads in work this morning who live around me, and they've got no surveys coming in the doors. I'm not going to bother ringing the NRA, as I don't care that much to ring them.

I will be at home tonight, and if someone calls to the door, I'll go all detective on his ass.

If this is a new scam I think it would be worth verifying for the benefit of all here.

If it is genuine then it might save an NRA surveyor from unnecessary verbal.

I think you should call and find out, or snapshot the letter head and post here for us to see.

REAL TIME POST.

Taking forever to answer their phone.......

Yeah, dude in the head office of the NRA said they haven't got any surveys going around in relation to anything like that, and there's no reason for them to be asking things like that.

Also, I doubt any proper lad would be going around houses at 9pm to pick these things up.

So watch out lads. I'll take photos and stick them on my Photobucket and link it here later, so you all know what to look for.

GODDAMN, my dad is stupid.

Tell him that. Old time country folk, used to leaving the front door open all day. No reason not to trust anyone he doesn't know. Yet if he saw a few teenagers walking up the road, he'd be onto the guards like a shot.

I'd certainly send a copy of the scan to the NRA so they can maybe throw something on their website to warn people.

joepie, i would also give your picture and booklet to the gardai. But then again bet they dont call back, could have been trying to see if your dad lived alone by asking how many booklets he needed?

Right, so I did the rounds of the neighbours I know. One of them took in two of the survey booklets around 11pm on Friday night, which is most likely when my Da took them in as well.

None of the other neighhbours I went to had received anything on paper, but one of them got a phonecall on Saturday afternoon from a woman claiming to be from Millward Brown, and wanted to do the survey over the phone, which she refused.

It's actually the National Transport Authority, which makes more sense than the NRA, but I'm still not convinced.

The leaflet is just a standard A4 page folded over, which is unprofessional.

The questions asked in the survey relate to when you leave the house, where you're going, how long it takes (km and time), who goes with you, how you get there. Basically, what time do you leave your house and how long will you be out. And you have to fill this out for a two day period.

The survey is being carried out by Millward Brown Landsdowne, who are legit, as I have a friend who worked for them. He says they only cold-called though.

I Googled Millward Brown's phone numbers on the letter, and one of them is an 1800 number which is legit, but the other only has the first 3 digits of the Millward Brown number listed on the website. Googling it only returns plane parts serial numbers.

I have many questions around this which makes the whole thing a scam in my head, so I'm popping down to Blanch Garda Station with the documents now. The guy is supposed to come pick them up around 9pm this evening, so I'll let them know that if they want to swing a patrol car by.

I could be totally wrong about all of this though. It could be a legit survey. In which case it is the most poorly orchestrated survey with the dodgiest questions ever. Rather be safe than sorry and all of that.

Pictures attached of some of the documents. Soz about the quality.

Well, the guard disappeared for a while and came back telling me it was legit, and showing me a link on her smart phone of all things.

NTA Household survey

There's a link to it. The questions are in the SAMPLE QUESTIONS link so you can see for yourself how sketchy they look.

She was very dismissive though when I was trying to ask her if she could understand how sketch the whole thing looked.

Well, turns out I was wrong and I'm no Batman. Yet. Maybe I'm Robin.

i have an idea for a motion activated front door peep hole camera that i'd love to get made into a real product.

it would be simple enough, just screwed to the inside of the door using a standard sized peephole lens to the ouside world with a digital camera with the usual basic facial detection that you'd find on any camera these days, so that any time someone comes to your front door it takes a decent quality (decent enough for an ID) snap of their face with a time/date stamp embedded in it.

No need for you to even look at it unless something dodgy happens, at which point you whip out the memory card and put it into your PC and hand over the pics of who was at your door for the garda to investigate.

maybe even have a little ring/logo around the peephole lens outside with "smile you're on camera" in big bright letters to ward off anyone that might be considering doing something they shouldn't.

you'd just need something to supply power to it, but most people have a plug socket in their front hall, so i don't see that being an issue.

might be something for the Raspberry Pi projects thread.

edit: posted in the other thread, you never know, someone clever might decide to make one.