Members of the travelling community calling to the door

Renegade_Archer

Do any of you have problems with travellers begging at the door? Had the same kid call to the door *3 fecking times* in the one day... don't think telling him to FO and not come back would be a good idea lest he comes back with his ten brothers and robs me car or something... any tips for getting rid of them?

Ruu_Old

What did he want? Money or ciggies usually. Havent had a problem in a long time with travellers.

Renegade_Archer

Money usually. Problem is the mother used to give em a few euro, but she doesn't anymore, after two of em decided to take a dump on our doorstep (I **** you not... pardon the pun). She was out today, and the kid just kept calling back looking for her.. me and the father don't give em anything. They call at least three times a week on average, bit of a pain in the hole. Usual conversation goes something like this:


"Is your ma there?"
"no"
*closes door*
*knocks on window, points at my mother sitting in the chair, goes back to ringing doorbell*
"Listen, shes not giving you anything, go away"
*gives me a look like hes going to burn my house down, walks away, comes back 2-3 days later*


Could do without a bunch of knackers smashing my windows in, and I doubt the cops would be of much use....

Tobias Greeshman

Well I'm not condoning this, but had similar problem before and my father answered the door with a shotgun in his hand (gun wasn't loaded of course). He told them to clear to be f***ed, never seen them again. Was very funny actually, cos the knacker in question nearly p1ssed his pants.

Blackjack

mistake was your mother giving them the money first time. They'll always call back if you ever give them money.

Rhyme

Not really a problem but i do get the same Romanian/Eastern European lady calling every now and then... i don't think she understands the word "no", seriously.

Wertz

Threaten them with a bar of soap...

Unless you actually want to buy some carpet.

Blowfish

Blackjack wrote:

mistake was your mother giving them the money first time. They'll always call back if you ever give them money.

This is true, its far better to offer them anything else bar money. The genuine ones will tend to take anything they are given (food/old clothes, etc), but the ones who will just spend the money on the likes of drink anyway, will try to convince you that money is the only option. And feeding a habit helps noone

Pigman II

They used to come round to my house a lot and even tho I'd always tell them the usual "sorry I don't have anything for you" story they'd still pop round again and again irregardless.

Anyway (totally unrelated to them) I got one of those survelance-cameras installed in my front door. One day a mother knacker and her kids came around and rang the bell. I didn't bother answering the door as I'd flicked to the camera channel and could see who it was at the door. I could also see *they* were unusually interested in the camera and it's location and the fact that it was pointed directly at them.

Anyway, years have past at not one of them have ever darkened my doorstep since, but I'm sure it's just coincidence.

Nightwish

Tell him you're a paedophile. He'll be afraid of ya then.

Yook

For christ sake! Call them Knackers!

whiskeyman

Nightwish wrote:

Tell him you're a paedophile. He'll be afraid of ya then.

Or put a few "Free Padraic Nally" stickers on your front door...

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Pythia

whiskeyman wrote:

Or put a few "Free Padraic Nally" stickers on your front door...

Nice idea...

Ruu_Old

Nightwish wrote:

Tell him you're a paedophile. He'll be afraid of ya then.

Either they will leave you alone or they will burn you out of it, you've got a sporting chance

astrofool

We had a few call at the door last week, upon being shooed, they returned to their '06 SUV

marco murphy

An incident happened in Navan were an attempted car robbery took a swing.
Some travellers trying to rob a car and the owner just shot into the air with a shotgun. They never came back

EDIT : stop calling them knackers.

mikemac

When I was home in Tipperary last summer they often called around to us.
There were traders from Rathkeale and they had vans full of furniture. As I understand, its not stolen but brought in from England.
They bring it to Rathkeale and they sell it in the surrounding areas.
We weren't interested and never bought anything.

However our neighbour who is a retired garda seargant told us to be wary of this trick. If travellers call to your front door, often someone goes around the back to check the house out. This especially happens to elderly people living on their own in rural areas. Obviosly this doesn't apply if you live in an estate.

When I was in college, I paid 2 young knackers to cut our small lawn. They did a terrible job and I wouldn't pay them. Got a brick through the window a few days later. So I'd advise people to just say no but maybe not be abusive to them.

kc66

Just in relation to the furniture thing. I know an elderly lady who bought a suite of furniture from them. It was a good deal and the furniture was 100%. A year later they came back and said they need to take the furniture back! They pretty much barged in and demanded €300 to replace it with a better suite. She gave them the money and still ended with a good deal. But what was going on there? The cheek. The woman was pretty vulnerable.

Gone West

the idea is that if you dont buy anything or whatever, their kids will run into your back garden while your occupied and rob your kids bikes/etc.

mikemac

I'm sure the furniture is good quality. The reason its so cheap is because no VAT was being charged. So you can get a good deal but I'd never buy anything from them.

the_syco

Poblachtach wrote:

EDIT : stop calling them knackers.

Travellers don't come to your door to beg. Only knackers do.

=-=

I just tell them to f*ck off. Anyone who knows me to see proberly knows I'm kinda tall. Also, I tell them to f*ck off if I come to the door, and they're already talking to a member of my family. Finally, after I tell them to f*ck off, I warn my mates, who also tell the knackers to f*ck off. If the knackers get it into their heads they aren't welcome, they come back less and less. Same goes for the rest of the beggers.

Haven't gotten a begger to the door in almost a year.

micmclo wrote:

I'm sure the furniture is good quality. The reason its so cheap is because no VAT was being charged. So you can get a good deal but I'd never buy anything from them.

If you let them into your house, when they're bring the furniture in, they can scope out your house, see if you have an alarm, or dog, and if you have anything they can steal.

mikemac

Lately in our estate, we have a women and two small children coming to all the houses looking for help.
My landlord is big into charity and gave them money last week so they're ringing the doorbell every second day.

The only time I was talking to them, they handed me a note which was barely legible(spelling?) but was basically asking for cash. I directed them to the local social welfare office. Landlord informs me they are Serbian.

As a rule I never give money to beggers. We live in a great country where if you don't work or pay tax you can still apply for housing and benefits. Maybe, I'm hard-hearted but I like the American system where if your fit and able to work but don't, your welfare is cut off in six months. We could then spend the money saved on pensioners and people who realy needed it.

Any time a begger asks me for change, I wonder how can thousands of immigrants arrive here and manage to work hard, rent a place and generally make a success of themselves. Maybe beggers should stop feeling sorry for themselves and enrol on a FAS course.

Sorry rant over.

Pazaz 21

micmclo wrote:

As a rule I never give money to beggers. We live in a great country where if you don't work or pay tax you can still apply for housing and benefits. Maybe, I'm hard-hearted but I like the American system where if your fit and able to work but don't, your welfare is cut off in six months. We could then spend the money saved on pensioners and people who realy needed it.

Any time a begger asks me for change, I wonder how can thousands of immigrants arrive here and manage to work hard, rent a place and generally make a success of themselves. Maybe beggers should stop feeling sorry for themselves and enrol on a FAS course.

Sorry rant over.

With you their man, good rant:D

projectmayhem

micmclo wrote:

Lately in our estate, we have a women and two small children coming to all the houses looking for help.
My landlord is big into charity and gave them money last week so they're ringing the doorbell every second day.

The only time I was talking to them, they handed me a note which was barely legible(spelling?) but was basically asking for cash. I directed them to the local social welfare office. Landlord informs me they are Serbian.

As a rule I never give money to beggers. We live in a great country where if you don't work or pay tax you can still apply for housing and benefits. Maybe, I'm hard-hearted but I like the American system where if your fit and able to work but don't, your welfare is cut off in six months. We could then spend the money saved on pensioners and people who realy needed it.

Any time a begger asks me for change, I wonder how can thousands of immigrants arrive here and manage to work hard, rent a place and generally make a success of themselves. Maybe beggers should stop feeling sorry for themselves and enrol on a FAS course.

Sorry rant over.

QFT

netwhizkid

Down our way in Kerry once a Knacker sold a wardrobe to an elderly old woman, gave her a good deal. They landed back an hour later saying they had sold her the wrong one by mistake and the "boss" was mad. Refunded the money she had paid and took off. About two hours later the old lady discovered that just about everything of value in the upstairs was stolen. They smuggled in a Child Knacker and he filled up the wardrobe with stuff.

Another case I heard is once was of a newly married couple who were in the process of completing and moving into their new house. Anyway while the couple were on honeymoon, the knackers landed to their neighbours saying how they had arranged with the newly-weds to drop off the carpet. The foolish neighbours payed them alot of money for the carpet believing that such a deal was okay. When they returned from honey-moon there had been no deal and the roll of carpet was enough to go around the roll once and the rest was off cuts and old carpet and newspapers etc. :mad:

The shotgun is the answer.

mikemac

projectmayhem wrote:

QFT

Sorry, what does this mean? I've no idea

netwhizkid

micmclo wrote:

Sorry, what does this mean? I've no idea

QUOTED FOR TRUTH

projectmayhem

netwhizkid wrote:

Down our way in Kerry once a Knacker sold a wardrobe to an elderly old woman, gave her a good deal. They landed back an hour later saying they had sold her the wrong one by mistake and the "boss" was mad. Refunded the money she had paid and took off. About two hours later the old lady discovered that just about everything of value in the upstairs was stolen. They smuggled in a Child Knacker and he filled up the wardrobe with stuff.

Another case I heard is once was of a newly married couple who were in the process of completing and moving into their new house. Anyway while the couple were on honeymoon, the knackers landed to their neighbours saying how they had arranged with the newly-weds to drop off the carpet. The foolish neighbours payed them alot of money for the carpet believing that such a deal was okay. When they returned from honey-moon there had been no deal and the roll of carpet was enough to go around the roll once and the rest was off cuts and old carpet and newspapers etc. :mad:

The shotgun is the answer.

i'm no fan of these scummers tbh, but those two cases were examples of pure idiocy from the victim's perspectives. i mean, who buys a wardrobe without opening it? and who the hell buys carpet for someone else?

Daily D 5

mikemac

Daily D 5 wrote:

You posted this on another thread as well.
Wasting time and heading for a ban, me thinks :rolleyes:

ChityWest

After hearing the story of the Polish beggar arrested carrying 11,000 euros I would not give money to beggars.

If you add in the free house & benefits they are getting it is taking the piss. They have to be laughing their asses off at people stupid enough to give them money. The same applies to travellers imo. And if you do give them money (calling to your door) you are marking yourself out as a victim/target and I cant see anything good coming from it. I also reckon that when it comes to saying NO and having them ignore it - the belief that this is because they are 'a bit slow' or not good with english is making a major assumption - I would think the more likely guess is that they understand you when you say no - they just dont give a damn.

Hagar

Offer them work...

Mr.Nice Guy

Just don't answer the door!

ChityWest

I dont really have any work to offer them tbh and if I did I would think twice about it.

They dont really come to my door anymore anyways - the most grief thesedays is bloody people ringing up trying to change (telephone) providers. Now those people DO have a problem getting their heads around the word N Fcuking O.

Wertz

ChityWest wrote:

I dont really have any work to offer them tbh and if I did I would think twice about it.

They dont really come to my door anymore anyways - the most grief thesedays is bloody people ringing up trying to change (telephone) providers. Now those people DO have a problem getting their heads around the word N Fcuking O.

"Hi, this is Silly Bitch from €ircon, we've noticed from our records that you recently changed service providers and I would like to tell you about our new offers if you have a few minutes..."

I'd sooner let the tinkers in...

ChityWest

Wertz wrote:

"Hi, this is Silly Bitch from €ircon, we've noticed from our records that you recently changed service providers and I would like to tell you about our new offers if you have a few minutes..."

I'd sooner let the tinkers in...

True - those telecom telesales robots are straight out of terminator 3 - they just dont ever stop.

Dave!

Not one positive story here about travellers... yet, it's only a matter of time before someone comes in and posts about how lovely and friendly and charitable they are, and how we're all racist, prejudice, bleh bleh bleh *yawn* :rolleyes:

Gator

Pikeys

OMcGovern

Haven't had any knackers calling around, thank God.... they just tried attacking me in a road rage incident instead.
But I reckon, a short circuit in the doorbell, just enough to give the caller a good
"jolt" if they tried ringing the bell twice in 20 seconds should suffice.

Or maybe put a sign on my door for "Immigration control" or "Social Welfare fraud office" would scare them off.

I get a LOAD of alledged charities dropping plastic bags through my door and expecting me to fill it with clothes etc for them..... I could swear that I saw a documentary on RTE ( probably "Today Tonight" ) on that racket. That those guys sell container loads of clothes abroad for around EUR 5,000 a go..... and just token amounts to charity.... maybe EUR 500. Just as bad as chuggers on the street.

muffler

I had a bit of bother with them some years ago. There was one caravan parked on the road fairly close to my house with a real rough geezer and his family in it.
One night it got a bit out of hand and a bit of a scrap developed between us(more of a wrestling match than anything else) and I had to sit up all night and make sure no harm would come to us or the house. But myself and the family got fierce verbal abuse all next day.

After promising the wife I wouldn't react to all the goading I went to both the Council and the gardai but they did nothing.

In the immortal words in the Godfather film they were "made an offer they couldnt refuse" later that night and they were gone by 7 the following morning.

That would have been about 13 years ago and there has never been a caravan round here since.

Dave!

muffler wrote:

I had a bit of bother with them some years ago. There was one caravan parked on the road fairly close to my house with a real rough geezer and his family in it.
One night it got a bit out of hand and a bit of a scrap developed between us(more of a wrestling match than anything else) and I had to sit up all night and make sure no harm would come to us or the house. But myself and the family got fierce verbal abuse all next day.

After promising the wife I wouldn't react to all the goading I went to both the Council and the gardai but they did nothing.

In the immortal words in the Godfather film they were "made an offer they couldnt refuse" later that night and they were gone by 7 the following morning.

That would have been about 13 years ago and there has never been a caravan round here since.

What'd ya say to them?

muffler

DaveMcG wrote:

What'd ya say to them?

I said nothing but somebody said something to them alright. I think you will have to use imagination at this point

Pigman II

DaveMcG wrote:

What'd ya say to them?

"he held a bar of soap to his head and assured him that either his clothes or his body would be getting a wash. That's a true story. ..."

Wertz

muffler wrote:

I said nothing but somebody said something to them alright. I think you will have to use imagination at this point

"Say nuthin' till ye hear more"

Stench Blossoms

OMcGovern wrote:

I get a LOAD of alledged charities dropping plastic bags through my door and expecting me to fill it with clothes etc for them..... I could swear that I saw a documentary on RTE ( probably "Today Tonight" ) on that racket. That those guys sell container loads of clothes abroad for around EUR 5,000 a go..... and just token amounts to charity.... maybe EUR 500. Just as bad as chuggers on the street.

I get loads of them aswell and i fill them but they never collect them.

We bought a few rugs off Travellers a few years ago, two weeks later they knocked around again asking did we want to buy some tools ( my dad being a builder). I went up and asked my dad who was in the toilet at the time and all i can remember is my dad bursting out of the toilet and running outside. Sure enough they were trying to get into my dads van. This in broad daylight aswell.

Nephew

We had a skip in our driveway before christmas, one morning around 8am I looked out my window and there were three travellers rummaging about in it, dirty bastards came back every day until it was taken away. A few weeks later one of the she-travellers knocked on my door at 1.45am on a Tuesday pissed out of her mind looking to come in to have some coffee. Needless to say I told the bitch where to go. Blackie Connors is turning in his grave.

Sam Vimes

ChityWest wrote:

I dont really have any work to offer them tbh and if I did I would think twice about it.

They dont really come to my door anymore anyways - the most grief thesedays is bloody people ringing up trying to change (telephone) providers. Now those people DO have a problem getting their heads around the word N Fcuking O.

i can't remember the number but you can phone up and put yourself on the "do not call" list and you won't get telemarketers anymore. i got a thing in the mail about it from bt about 6 months ago.

DaveMcG wrote:

Not one positive story here about travellers... yet, it's only a matter of time before someone comes in and posts about how lovely and friendly and charitable they are, and how we're all racist, prejudice, bleh bleh bleh *yawn* :rolleyes:

well hobbes is still in bed


the ones that piss me off the most are the women who bring babies with them and cry at the door and won't accept anything but money. they came back almost every day because my mother is nice to them (though she doesn't give them money). the final straw was when only my sister was in the house and some bloke stuck his foot in the door and wouldn't let her close it for a minute or two. after that i said "i don't have any money and if i did i wouldn't give it to you". they got the idea after a few days

awhir

this traveler was putting down some tarmac some were and he sent his kids off to paint my uncels shed.my uncel did not know but when they arrived looking for money he told them to ****off.about 3 hours after that the dad came demanding him to pay so my uncel got the shot-gun and loaded it in front of the traveler.The traveler still would not move so my uncle show just above the travelers truck and i never seen somthing run that fast in my life.:D

Ruu_Old

claregalway Qs wrote:

this traveler was putting down some tarmac some were and he sent his kids off to paint my uncels shed.my uncel did not know but when they arrived looking for money he told them to ****off.about 3 hours after that the dad came demanding him to pay so my uncel got the shot-gun and loaded it in front of the traveler.The traveler still would not move so my uncle show just above the travelers truck and i never seen somthing run that fast in my life.:D

Haha, they are notorious for the tarmac thing. I know several people who had driveways a few hours later after being done with glass and all sorts raising to the top of the it!:rolleyes:

Dudess

DaveMcG wrote:

Not one positive story here about travellers... yet, it's only a matter of time before someone comes in and posts about how lovely and friendly and charitable they are, and how we're all racist, prejudice, bleh bleh bleh *yawn* :rolleyes:

Well said, good sir. Having said that, someone suggested a few posts ago that beggars do a FAS course and stop feeling sorry for themselves. Point taken, but they're likely to be illiterate.