Thief warning, maybe

luckat

Was walking down Talbot Street the other day with two girls in their 20s walking behind me, chatting quietly in, I think, Romanian. Dressed nicely - pale jeans, nice jackets - and their hair straight and dark, drawn back neatly on to their necks.

As we stopped at a traffic lights I sensed....something.... and stepped back and to the side so I was behind them. Not a flicker from them; they kept on walking in front of me, and when I reached my destination I shrugged my knapsack-shaped handbag off my shoulders, to find that it had been quietly unlatched.

They (if it was they) had taken nothing, perhaps not fancying the library books that were the only thing in the bag, but it's a warning.

Pigman II

Eh it's talbot street. Imho It was dodgy street #1 in Dublin long before we knew there was a country called Romania.

FunkyChicken

Stinkin thievin Romanians. They robbed my hairband last week.

connundrum

luckat wrote:

Was walking down Talbot Street the other day with two girls in their 20s walking behind me, chatting quietly in, I think, Romanian. Dressed nicely - pale jeans, nice jackets - and their hair straight and dark, drawn back neatly on to their necks.

As we stopped at a traffic lights I sensed....something.... and stepped back and to the side so I was behind them. Not a flicker from them; they kept on walking in front of me, and when I reached my destination I shrugged my knapsack-shaped handbag off my shoulders, to find that it had been quietly unlatched.

They (if it was they) had taken nothing, perhaps not fancying the library books that were the only thing in the bag, but it's a warning.

Perhaps you had left your initial destination having forgot to close your bag properly?

I have driven off twice before without having actually closed my door at all, which made for an interesting right hand turn

Pigman II

connundrum wrote:

Perhaps you had left your initial destination having forgot to close your bag properly?

I have driven off twice before without having actually closed my door at all, which made for an interesting right hand turn

Could be so but we should at least give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he is not an idiot until he states otherwise.

Terry

Pigman II wrote:

Eh it's talbot street. Imho It was dodgy street #1 in Dublin long before we knew there was a country called Romania.

i used to get the train to connolly and walk from there to whereeveri was going. this usualy meant walking down Talbot street. that was 15 years ago and it was dodgy as fu(k back then.
store street was no picnic either. two guys were sitting outside the cop station drinking cider and bummed a cigarette off a 15 year old me. i was ****ting myself.

cormie

I left the house before and forgot to pull up my zipper:o Everyones a suspect!

exiztone

That whole street seems like it's stuck in the 1980s.

biko

luckat wrote:

Was walking down Talbot Street the other day with two girls in their 20s walking behind me, chatting quietly in, I think, Romanian. Dressed nicely - pale jeans, nice jackets - and their hair straight and dark, drawn back neatly on to their necks.

As we stopped at a traffic lights I sensed....something.... and stepped back and to the side so I was behind them. Not a flicker from them; they kept on walking in front of me, and when I reached my destination I shrugged my knapsack-shaped handbag off my shoulders, to find that it had been quietly unlatched.

They (if it was they) had taken nothing, perhaps not fancying the library books that were the only thing in the bag, but it's a warning.

Thanks, I'll keep a lookout for these two outside Dublin.

tman

biko wrote:

Thanks, I'll keep a lookout for these two outside Dublin.

same here.
i'll make sure that every window in the house is closed before going to bed tonight as well, those Romanians are crafty ones!

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

were they good looking?

Da Bounca

I once left my car for 2 hours, in a car park, in ballyfermot, with the keys in the ignition and the engine running.

BossArky

As a student in Limerick a few years ago I used to work in a chipper on the Dublin road. There used to be a skip out the back which I would dump the kitchen bins into every now and again. The owner always warned me to lock it up tonight "because if not those Romanians will be sleeping in it".

He was a small minded small town fellow. It was not so long ago that Irish people were branded with the same brush for example in England.

Hobbes

Had the same thing happen in Boston one time. Had an empty backpack on my back when a guy and girl started to ask me directions. The guy kept me distracted while the girl went behind me. Copped it straight away as soon as she started to open it. Both ran off. They had some nerve too they were doing it in a street with loads of people.

Dooom

Da Bounca wrote:

I once left my car for 2 hours, in a car park, in ballyfermot, with the keys in the ignition and the engine running.

Rofl, leaving the keys in the car I could understand - but leaving the engine running, that's a new one!

Brian Capture

A lot of Talbot Street hatred here.

Were you happy that was bombed in 1974?

Shame on you if you were.

monkeyfudge

I have walked down Talbot street everytime I've gone into town for the past 28 years and never had any problems. I once saw some Garda tackle a guy to the ground... but other than that nothing.

Oh.. I did get in a big argument in the 101 Talbot restaurant once though... but one of the guys working in there is a total asshole.

Terry

Brian Capture wrote:

A lot of Talbot Street hatred here.

Were you happy that was bombed in 1974?

Shame on you if you were.

not really.
my mother was carrying my unborn sister on that street at the time and ended up losing the child.
what this has to do with robbery is beyond me though.

Pigman II

Whats the name of that pub across from Barneys pool hall? It looks like the still haven't recovered from the bombings?

Brian Capture

julep wrote:

not really.
my mother was carrying my unborn sister on that street at the time and ended up losing the child.
what this has to do with robbery is beyond me though.

the connection = the (attempted) robbery took place on the same street which was bombed by loyalists in 1974.

Dave!

So, you saw 2 girls talking... you felt funny... you looked at your bag and it was open... therefore they tried to rob you?!?!

WHAT DID THE POLICE SAY?!?!?

tman

DaveMcG wrote:

So, you saw 2 girls talking... you felt funny... you looked at your bag and it was open... therefore they tried to rob you?!?!

WHAT DID THE POLICE SAY?!?!?

They've started a nationwide hunt for the two suspects, and are urging all chip shop owners to report any suspicious activities in their skips at night.

DublinWriter

Brian Capture wrote:

the connection = the (attempted) robbery took place on the same street which was bombed by loyalists in 1974.

Oh really? You obviously know more than anyone else then because no loyalist paramilitary group to date ever claimed responsibility for it.

I've worked with Romanians in Belgium, and let me say that the type of Romanian we get here is light years away from the average Romanian.

Here's a couple of scams run by the Romanians in Ireland to watch out for:

a) guy in car pulls up to you looking for directions to the airport. You give him directions and he claims to be Italian, coming from some leatherware convention and that he has a lot of stock he wants to get rid of quick as he doesn't want to pay baggage charges going back to 'Italy'. Usually the merchandise is poor-quality fake leather. This scam was pulled on me on Kildare Street one Saturday afternoon around this time last year.

b) Usual begger plus child/infant turns up at the door looking for money. You say you don't have any. They pull a puppy dog face and say that they've been out all day and the kid is thirsty and can they have a glass of water. You retire to the kitchen (located at the back of your house) and within 60 seconds your front room and hall will be gone through.

c) Romanian sits next to woman with handbag on bus. Romanian is carrying large coat and systematically tries to cut the purse out of the woman's handbag using a Stanley knife undercover of the large coat.

I'd recommend the PC police in this thread taking a back seat. Unless you or yours were done by one of the above scams, then don't come on here bleating about the experience of the Irish in the UK in the 60's and 70's being similar.

Wertz

Brian Capture wrote:

the connection = the (attempted) robbery took place on the same street which was bombed by loyalists in 1974.

Were you dropped on your head as a child?

jesus_thats_gre

Brian Capture wrote:

the connection = the (attempted) robbery took place on the same street which was bombed by loyalists in 1974.

Tart

Brian Capture

DublinWriter wrote:

Oh really? You obviously know more than anyone else then because no loyalist paramilitary group to date ever claimed responsibility for it.

Three of the four ringleaders are dead.

I have read three books on the 1974 bombings of Dublin and Monaghan
numerous newspaper articles
corresponded with the Justice for the Forgotten group

and have drawn my own conclusions.

This dismissive attitude towards the bombings is typical of the self-loathing mindset of the time (which sadly carries on into the present)
i.e. 'The IRA are bombing all around them so it's our own fault if the loyalists come down here and wreak carnage in Dublin. We'd better say nothing.'

Shabadu

DublinWriter wrote:

Oh really? You obviously know more than anyone else then because no loyalist paramilitary group to date ever claimed responsibility for it.

I've worked with Romanians in Belgium, and let me say that the type of Romanian we get here is light years away from the average Romanian.

Here's a couple of scams run by the Romanians in Ireland to watch out for:

a) guy in car pulls up to you looking for directions to the airport. You give him directions and he claims to be Italian, coming from some leatherware convention and that he has a lot of stock he wants to get rid of quick as he doesn't want to pay baggage charges going back to 'Italy'. Usually the merchandise is poor-quality fake leather. This scam was pulled on me on Kildare Street one Saturday afternoon around this time last year.

b) Usual begger plus child/infant turns up at the door looking for money. You say you don't have any. They pull a puppy dog face and say that they've been out all day and the kid is thirsty and can they have a glass of water. You retire to the kitchen (located at the back of your house) and within 60 seconds your front room and hall will be gone through.

c) Romanian sits next to woman with handbag on bus. Romanian is carrying large coat and systematically tries to cut the purse out of the woman's handbag using a Stanley knife undercover of the large coat.

I'd recommend the PC police in this thread taking a back seat. Unless you or yours were done by one of the above scams, then don't come on here bleating about the experience of the Irish in the UK in the 60's and 70's being similar.

Immigants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it was them.

DublinWriter

Brian Capture wrote:

Three of the four ringleaders are dead.

Really? Care to name them?

As I stated, no loyalist paramilitary group ever 'fessed up to the 1974 bombings. Don't you think that they'd be eager to capatlise on home support by admitting bombing the 'free state' in the first place?

drunkenfool

i walked down the street saw someone looking at me, think they might be romanian, i dropped my stuff and ran...

connundrum

DublinWriter wrote:

b) Usual begger plus child/infant turns up at the door looking for money. You say you don't have any. They pull a puppy dog face and say that they've been out all day and the kid is thirsty and can they have a glass of water. You retire to the kitchen (located at the back of your house) and within 60 seconds your front room and hall will be gone through.

I knew of a couple of guys from Trim who used to do this (and were caught)... they probably learned the system from the Romanians though

*Hi Five*

Let I not be the one to stand in front of the immigrant bashing possy.

Black Swan

Talbot?

Collie D

Brian Capture wrote:

This dismissive attitude towards the bombings is typical of the self-loathing mindset of the time (which sadly carries on into the present)
i.e. 'The IRA are bombing all around them so it's our own fault if the loyalists come down here and wreak carnage in Dublin. We'd better say nothing.'

What circles do you mix in because I don't know anybody who thinks like that?

growler

i demand that Talbot St. be closed to those of the female persuasion until this scandal has been resolved.

Brian Capture

DublinWriter wrote:

Really? Care to name them?

this has been well-documented elsewhere

four from
Robin Jackson
Billy Hanna
Wesley Sommerville
Harris Boyle
William 'Frenchie' Marchant

possibly one or two others

DublinWriter wrote:

As I stated, no loyalist paramilitary group ever 'fessed up to the 1974 bombings. Don't you think that they'd be eager to capatlise on home support by admitting bombing the 'free state' in the first place?

Incorrect.
The UVF claimed responsibility in 1993.
Have a read of this - in the section under 'Relatives not satisfied'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/regions/northern_ireland/412646.stm

Wertz

I'm sorry but WTF has this got to do with romanian pickpockets?
We're trying to bash immigrants here not feckin' loyalists.

connundrum

Wertz wrote:

I'm sorry but WTF has this got to do with romanian pickpockets?
We're trying to bash immigrants here not feckin' loyalists.

Roffle

On a serious note though, Westmorlan St is clear for future reference, as is Leeson St. No Romanians, women or backpacks are permitted... therefore there should be no problems.

Join the campaign - www.letsbasheverythingforthelaugh.com

Smoggy

why do Romainians come to my door when they have half the Irish gold reserve stuck in thier teeth? kids hungry - sell a tooth you lazy b*tch.

con : ur link is dead

Karl Hungus

I'd just like to point out, having been to Romania, the majority of people there are quite upstanding, friendly folk.

Few bad apples and all that.

Miguel_Sanchez

I love this thread. A warning about two people who may have possibly been Romanian and may have possibly attempted to rob somebody. Better get this out to the media before it happens again!

Aslo I love the way it's degenerated into an argument about bombings between two people. WTF?

Talliesin

luckat wrote:

Was walking down Talbot Street the other day with two girls in their 20s walking behind me, [...] when I reached my destination I shrugged my knapsack-shaped handbag off my shoulders, to find that it had been quietly unlatched.

Had much the same thing happen to me last December in Rathfarnham. Wasn't this two, but a young boy and a woman. Also these two were Irish. Thieving paddy bastards.

BaZmO*

luckat wrote:

As we stopped at a traffic lights I sensed....something....

Oh prey tell!! What did you sense??? Your inherent xenophobia perhaps????


Or maybe your Spidey Senses were telling you something else??? Maybe that in the future you would post a fairly innocuous thread on an internet forum about the perils of open boarders only to have it descend into a Unionist bashing excercise??????..........

Victor

Da Bounca wrote:

I once left my car for 2 hours, in a car park, in ballyfermot, with the keys in the ignition and the engine running.

They knew it was a trap!

Time Magazine

monkeyfudge wrote:

Oh.. I did get in a big argument in the 101 Talbot restaurant once though... but one of the guys working in there is a total asshole.

Was his name Alex by any chance?

luckat

Coming back on this. Of course I don't think all Romanians are thieves, that would be idiotic.

I'm pretty sure that this pair slid open my bag, which I was carrying on my back. I don't care if they're Romanian or Irish; I'm just describing them so that anyone else can watch out for them on Talbot Street.

The bag was certainly closed when I left my bus in O'Connell Street, and it's never unlatched itself before.

Thanks for the warnings about Talbot Street; it's where I work so I don't have a lot of choice about walking there.

I've spent a certain amount of time hanging out with thieves, whether through work or, earlier, through politics, and there's a certain style of a thief at work.

Jotter

I agree that it was most likely the girls based on the fact that I saw this exact senario one night in temple bar. The gypsies that sell flowers had been hassling me while I was waiting on a friend and although I usually wouldnt have a problem with this the girl was making me feel uncomfortable bec she was right in my face so I told her where to go. She moved onto someone else and next thing theres an irish bloke chasing a girl down the street saying something about her bag, I looked over and there was the gypsy with her hand blatently in the pocket of the girls bag (which was on her back), she took out her wallet,emptied it and threw it away. The bloke managed to tell the girl what happened and tried to stop the thief who pushed him out of the way, I went up to say I saw what had happened and got a shove off her myself, next thing theres a load of gypsie blokes coming out of nowhere and off they all go. I was raging that there were no cops around and the b*tch got away with it, purerly bec she didnt give a damn about being caught and was so brazen. Now when those flower sellers come near me I tell them where to go from the off. While I agree that its unfair to tar all romanian gypsies with the same brush my experience with them both here and abroad have all involved robberies (inc an entire train being robbed in italy) so I tend to give them a wide berth and unfortunately for the nice ones I view them all with suspicion - again based on experience rather than hearsay.

Giruilla

Happened me on O'Connel street a while ago too. Two girls, could have been foreign didn't notice, stood really close behind me and mate at the traffic lights. My mate turned around and saw one of them was reaching into his back pocket. Obviously told her to **** off and that was that.
Just hope Dublin isn't getting like European cities such as Barcelona and Rome for pick pocketers!

luckat

Dublin's always been bad for pickpockets, but mostly it's tourists who are targeted, and old people. They won't prove a problem to thieves - the tourists because they'll have gone home when identification is required or the case comes up in court, and the old people because they're intimidated.

Pearse Street used to be particularly bad, as was Liffey Street, but I think Liffey Street anyway has been cleaned up since a bunch of scruffy, crim-looking people took to hanging out there - plainclothes gardai, as the dippers discover to their sorrow and disappointment.

Talbot Street and its surrounds are particularly bad for crime, to the shame of Store Street gardai, one supposes; a colleague whose car windscreen was smashed in and her boot opened when she left the car for five minutes, and her laptop and briefcase with *all* her work notes and contacts taken, went to a local windscreen company, who told her horrifying figures about how many windscreens he replaced every day from cars parked around the area.

Terry

please keep the thread on topic. this is not about the Dublin / Monaghan bombings.
if you want to talk abhout that, start a thread about it.

Nightwish

When I was in 1st year in college, I was walking down past the GPO, and I felt something tugging or hitting off my bag on my back and I turned around to see a 4 or 5 year old little Romanian boy at my bag and he just turned and ran down Henry St. I tried to run after him but he was too wiley for unfit me. Luckily he only opened the front pocket of my bag, where I only kept my bus ticket.

Karl Hungus

I'd second the warning about those flower sellers, and not just in Dublin either! A Polish girl I know had her bag stolen by one of those jerks here in Galway.

Calibos

ROMA GYPSIES!!

Roma Roma Roma!! Every time there is a thread like this it is the same. "Those feckin Romanians.....blah, blah, blah.

Some of them may very well be ROMA gypsies from Romania but equally they could be ROMA from The Czech Rep., Slovakia, Poland, Hungary etc etc.

Stop tarring the whole fecking country with the same gypsie brush. There is no difference between the ordinary Romanian than from a Pole or a Hungarian etc etc

Now get as un-PC as you like on the Roma Gypsies but leave the 'Romanians' out of it. Like most other posters on this thread I have had nothing but bad experiences with Roma. Every single one I have ever met has been trying to beg, rob, steal or scam me. Thats not to say the Roma communities in their home "Countries"-Plural are full of theives, beggers and scam artists but it seems that the ones that have immigrated here are almost to the last man, woman and child, out to beg, rob, steal and scam. ie. It seems the first wave of Roma immigrants over here have all been from the criminal element of the community.

What the OP has desrirbed is a classic example of backpack dipping. Once saw a programme on UK TV about the pickpocketting problem on Londons Oxford street and how the Police where dealing with it with CCTV and undercover officers. Modus operendi was two or three walking behind a person with a backpack. While one or two are blocking the view of other pedestrians, the middle one would have a jumper or coat over one arm also covering the other arm opening the fastener on the bag and putting their hand in. 1 out of 10 incidences caught by the cameras were perpetrated by a typical Chav/Skanger. The other 9 out of 10 times the perpetrators were stereotypical Roma ie. Gold teeth, Indo-European appearance etc.

The officers interviewed explained how although it was un-PC to profile and verging on illegal police practice, real world it had to be done. ie the cameras would follow a Roma looking group if one came into view and invariably sure enough within a few seconds or minutes the cameras would witness the group trying to pickpocket. He likened the profiling to trying to apprehend a smash and grap car thief. Patrolling police knew it was probably a waste of time stopping well dressed young men in work clothes or suits in the area of the crime but instead would keep an eye out for trackie and hoody wearing youth.