Car keyed in Liffey Valley

Rew

Went to see 28 weeks later tonight. Parked near enough the front of the cinema. Left the car (04 A3) at 20:20, got back 23:10 to find the rear drivers side panel keyed and all 3 panels on the passanger side done. Its bad on the rear wheel arch, door and back panel. Faint on the front wing, but there.

Another couple happend to be getting in to their car near by and I told them to check theirs as well and low and behold they had identical scratches on their 06 Octavia.

Reported to Liffey Vally Security (who said it never happens!) and the Gardaí.

I hear it happens all the time up there so all I can say is dont go to the cinema in Liffey Vally...

mikemac

I'll ask the obvious question.
Were you in a disabled spot or blocking someone? Reason I ask is if you were then it's most likely another driver and if not it's some scumbag kids.
You seem to be parked perfectly in the photos.

Don't know the area but it's come up in a few threads already.

BrandonBlock

Little ****in toerags, if I caught them in the process I wouldnt report it, I'd just knock the **** out of them and run. Even if they were kids, that's just not on. I take it by the lack of NCT disc your car is 03 or newer, They seem to target nicer cars more, I saw a porsche 911 keyed to bits on Herbert Park, D4 the other day. Looked fresh too. Can't really tell from the pictures but if they didn't lean to hard with the key, ie didn't dent the panels it shouldn't cost too much to repair.

Ouch.

I'm sure the culprits will get what they deserve sooner or later.

Rew

Good questions. No, it was parked perfectly in a regualr spot as far from the cars on all sides as possible etc. Yeah its 04 Audi A3, the other car was a 06 Skoda Octavia. 07 Colt beside the skoda was untouched so they seem to have targeted the more expensive cars.

BrandonBlock

Also from the looks of the picture you weren't parked too near the shopping centre, I'd say they wouldn't key cars closer to the entrance because of being seen.. so that's 1 solution -park closer, altho, I usually go to the cinema in Blanchardstown and for the name the area has, me or nobody I know has ever been keyed there.

colm_mcm

Hard luck, heard of a spree of thefts from Hyundais last year, Security seemed unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

the_syco

BrandonBlock wrote:

so that's 1 solution -park closer

Seconded. Worked in the cinema for a year, so I can say easily that it was probably the local knackers (local scum don't seem to cause as much trouble).

Rew

As close as I could get. Theres only one block between there and the main cinema enterance.

I wont be going to the cinema there again. Between this and the stories iv heard about thefts etc I wont be going back. Parked in Blanch hundreds of times and iv never had a problem or seen one.

philologos

Lucky you had a camera on you at the time, but very unfortunate.

Practical

jesus thats bad, I was there tonight myself for Wedding Daze at 21:10. I always make sure to park as close as I can to the entrance, I know it doesn't rule out anything but most scumbags hate confrontation. Its a pity cause its a good cinema

maidhc

Practical wrote:

I always make sure to park as close as I can to the entrance

Just don't apply that logic to tescos, or you will find the side of your car pockmarked from people ramming their doors open into your car...

It is hard to win.

RoundyMooney

I remember when I lived in Doobalin some years back, I used Liffey Valley regularly. Judging by the amount of chavs and knacks that frequent the place, all I can say is, I'm dissapointed but not overly surprised.

junkyard

I have a banger I use especially for trips tp the supermarket and funnily enough nothing ever happens it or maybe I just don't notice, it's such a wreck anyway.:rolleyes:

BostonB

I've been dented a few times in Blanch despite parking well away from everyone.

HungryJoey

F***ING SCUMBAGS. I'd knock the head off them if I seen them in the act - regardless of how much of a scumbag it makes me look in return its just not on! ughh it boils my blood. So unfortunate that is :mad:

Regarding getting knocks in the car-park Its happening all the time. Even my mother who drives a blood-red leon which is about a year old has had about 4-5 incidents in car parks. 2 nights ago to discover someone had rubbed up against the front wing of the car presumebly somebody pulling in/out of a space but it was blue and white paint on her car. This has happened Too many times to us and ruins the finish of the car having the bumpers and paint scraped on the cars :mad:

Hj

BostonB

Anyone ever have a result from chasing these incidents up with security? I never have. Usually the cameras see nothing, or its too low res to be useful.

HungryJoey

junkyard wrote:

I have a banger I use especially for trips tp the supermarket and funnily enough nothing ever happens it or maybe I just don't notice, it's such a wreck anyway.:rolleyes:

Would that be the renault ?

Hj



*I'll get my coat...*

Holsten

Jesus thats rough, sorry about the car man!

I'd say it's those pikeys that live near the centre, last them I was there coming onto the Lucan road the kids where throwing rocks at the passing cars, little ****ers.

lafors

Dirty scumbags.
I'm well pissed off seeing that and it's not even my car.
Thanks for the info, I'll not go near that cinema again!

Rew

BostonB wrote:

Anyone ever have a result from chasing these incidents up with security? I never have. Usually the cameras see nothing, or its too low res to be useful.

Probably not but if there isnt an offical record of it then it will just keep happening. Liffey Vally make alot of money from the people that park there and use the shopping center, making them aware of the issue may lead to changes. Its not a great shopping center so a bad rep wouldnt help it. At the bare mimimum I had to report it for insurance.

Pure chance I had the camera. Finished up in my old job on Friday and cleared out my work laptop bag in to my car and the camera was with it.

Havent looked at the damage in the daylight yet...

Rew

Just looked in the daylight. 2 scratches on the roof and bonnet as well. The one on the bonnet is fairly faint.

DonkeyStyle \o/

That's a damn shame... the A3 is probably my favorite car... the person who did this (aside from being a maladjusted tosser) clearly has no taste.

It's disheartening though, you can have nothing nice without some muppet ruining it to impress his equally sad friends.

bookiebasher

serious pain in the h**e...same thing happened me in mullingar a few months back...800 euro's worth of damage by some scumbag who had nothing better to do..
Insurance and petrol is dear enough without getting your car damaged by vandals..and the gas thing is if u came on them and hit them a few digs u would end up in court and probably face a conviction

Seth Brundle

bookiebasher wrote:

and the gas thing is if u came on them and hit them a few digs u would end up in court and probably face a conviction

Although I would try and throw them a few slaps I'll play devils advocate here: its because two wrongs don't make a right.

Rew

Throwing a few digs would be bess you could hope for with these guys I reckon. If they were caught criminal damage is a minir enough charge.

They had a fair go at the roof, looks like 3 or 4 seperate scratches, the worst goes from the front to the back on the passanger side.

Bonnet is minor to the point where I was wondering did i do it, but I wash and polish every week or 2 and haven't see them before.

They didnt even have the cop on to scratch the drivers door where I have a dent I need to get taken out anyway!!

Atomic Pineapple

liffy valley has to be one of the worst places to leave your car, the knackers live just down the road! my ex girlfriend works in the shopping centre and they went into the shop, went out the back of the shop when no one was looking took car keys out of the girls bags and went out and robbed the cars, such scum, another time they threatened to kill one of the girls because she stopped them from robbing stuff from the shop, its just unreal how they get away with it.

I would never park my car there at night

antodeco

Jesus OP, sorry to hear and see that. I used to frequent the Shopping Centre around 3 times a week for several years, and nothing ever happened. Admittingly, mosty of the scum around there know my car and wouldnt dare to touch it.

I know liffey valley is surrounded by scum, but most of the time they wont actually do anything. I think its just been bad luck. Does anyone know if the I the independant Insurance people (cant remember their name) can offer any assistance of third party damage to a car?

junkyard

HungryJoey wrote:

Would that be the renault ?

Hj



*I'll get my coat...*

Ah come on now HJ I do have some standards ya know, its a Suzuki Baleno.:)

colly10

Sorry to hear that, you gotta wonder what goes through these peoples minds, they get away with far too much though, you'd love to see some of these lads gettin a few slaps.

@the OP - If they got a few panels your probably better off doing a full respray, pricey but at least all the panels will match up.

Liffey Valley is a fairly dodgy place to park at night though, the sisters fella had the clear indicators robbed off the car there before (not bad but it gives ye the idea of the amount of scum around there)

Saruman

Whats funny is you would probably be better off parking in one of the scummy housing estates and walking across to the cinema...

That sucks.. maybe you should park down by M&S, might not make a difference but its furthest away from the housing estates and there is always spaces down there too!

Rew

Thanks for the tip. Im going to talk to my insurance company to see if they'll cover it. I'v 2 years no claims but its worth more to have the car put back right, its a nice spec A3 so im not going to ruin it with a crap paint job.

Judeing by the Garda's reaction it happens all the time up there. Funnily enough I wouldn't have even gone there if it had been showing in Blanch still.

ciarsd

Saruman wrote:

Whats funny is you would probably be better off parking in one of the scummy housing estates and walking across to the cinema...

That sucks.. maybe you should park down by M&S, might not make a difference but its furthest away from the housing estates and there is always spaces down there too!

Rew, totally frustrated reading your thread. F€uking $cum :mad:

Saruman, M&S used to be fine... it's just as bad as the rest now. Just take a look at the amount of car glass scattered around there.

Only last week a mate of mine had his door bashed in on his 06 vRS by the door of a van (complete with company logo's). This was right next to the main entrance to M&S - no place is safe no more hence us using my better half's 206 for such trips - sad eh?

gyppo

Seconded about M&S in liffey valley.
Myself and the missus were there one thursday afternoon about a year ago.
On the way back to the car, heard a car alarm on the go.
3 car places away from our car was a Santa Fe with the drivers window broken, and the radio gone. The dash surround around the radio was in bits.
I went back into M&S, met a manager who called the security crowd, and they paged for the owner. The owner happened to be at the checkout in M&S.
She had parked there less than 10 minutes..... so, obviously some scumbags were watching her park up.
The security guy said it was an ongoing problem.

Rew

All the money involved in that place and they cannt do a thing to stop this stuff happing since the day the place was built its mad!

I went school accross the road form there and there used to be regular muggings at the bus stop. I was there on my own one day and a group of lads appeared with a screw driver. Luckily they didnt want me and robbed the next bus that pulled up!!

As dodgy as I know it is I always thought that as a long as I didnt leave stuff obvious in the car it would be alright, that and I generally avoid it in favour of Blanch.

gyppo

kbannon wrote:

Although I would try and throw them a few slaps I'll play devils advocate here: its because two wrongs don't make a right.

I tend to agree with you. However...........

Years ago a neighbor of mine (sixties, big horse of a man) was visiting his very ill (at the time) wife in the Reginal Hospital Galway. He went into Terryland shopping centre to get a few bits for her on the way there.
When he came out, he saw a scumbag trying to break into his old escort car.
First reaction would have been to shout - but he crept up on the scummer who was busily engrossed with the car. He put his hand on the back of the guys head, and whacked his nose off the roof gutter of the car. The chav got up off the ground about 10 seconds later, and ran like Shergar.

Tommy was a bit pissed off, as he had to go and get his car washed after - not something he usually did!

Rew

Neighbour of mine caught lads smashing the rear windscreen of another neighbours Merc. He was big guy, 6'4"+, builder, fomer royal marine etc. swung from a hight and split one of the lads wide open.

He ID'd them to the Gardaí but there were issues with taking any further due to the fact that he'd hopped off one of them...

5500

Two of my friends cars have been broken into there recently,and the insides of them basically thrashed.Both were at the cinema end and just parked across from the main entrance.

In both cases security said it wasnt caught on video "the cameras were facing a different direction"

Would the centres public liability insurance cover you in such circumstances?

junkyard

eireal wrote:

Would the centres public liability insurance cover you in such circumstances?

Any car parks I've ever been in have signs posted stating " All car s are parked at owners risk and no responsibility will be accepted" etc.

Our man in Havana

But the fact is that disclaimers don't work.

Hifive

Just to show it can happen anywhere, I once had a car very badly keyed, every panel except the roof, while parked in a very posh residential, part of Sutton in Dublin. I felt sure it was brat kids, and was planning what I would do to them when I eventually caught up with them. But it it turned out to be a nutty old dear who had a problem with cars being parked with 2 wheels on the path. Maybe she had a point, although a note on the windscreen would suffice. Apparently my car was not the only one she had a go at.

CasimiR

I would never park my car there at night

Same thing happened to me in Liffey Vally .. car was brand new at the time; and it was in the middle of the afternoon
Scumbags ....i would probably understand if they smashed a window to steal something; but what s the point in just key'ing a car ?

Fey!

Sorry to see the damage Rew.

Do they charge for parking there? If they do, talk to a solicitor about getting compensated by the centre, as you can say that you assumed that it's "secure" parking seeing as you pay for it, disclaimers be damned. A lot of this may lead to the centre actually doing somehing about the problem.

colm_mcm

Parking is free in Liffey Valley (but sometimes expensive)

Fey!

Might be worth a try anyway.

Quint

draffodx wrote:

liffy valley has to be one of the worst places to leave your car, the knackers live just down the road!

I would never park my car there at night

Having visited plenty of Irish car and motorcycle forums, Liffey Valley problems seems to pop up a hell of a lot, more than anywhere else i've noticed.
And the security there seem to be absolutly useless. I wouldn never ever park there

JHMEG

Liffey Valley has to have the worst security of any shopping centre in Ireland.

Every Christmas the car parks are full of broken glass from peoples' cars getting broken into. I've even witnessed a pair of skobies walking through the car park peering into every car they passed. And I mean looking very closely (I reported to security).

As a result of the broken glass I do my shopping all my Xmas shopping in Blanch. Much much better policed.

The only place at Liffey Valley I'll park the rest of the year is the B&Q carpark... Someone said to me a few years back that skobies don't like long walks.

milltown

eireal wrote:

In both cases security said it wasnt caught on video "the cameras were facing a different direction"

Would the centres public liability insurance cover you in such circumstances?

I wonder if you're onto something there. I have never, ever heard of anyone reporting damage to their car and being told by security "we have it on tape". The camera is always facing the other direction. Maybe their PL should cover it but they're under orders not to help anyone prove they can claim under the centre's insurance.

I'm not just talking about Liffey Valley here. I know of instances in Superquinn, Tesco, Ashleaf and several where I work.

BTW, the security firm that covers Liffey Valley was changed about a year ago and professionalism seems to have gone out the window since. A few weeks ago I witnessed a huge fight just under the food court between a few chavs and half a dozen security staff. Quite a crowd saw the scrap, and after the main aggressor was restrained, one of the security guys getting a few digs in while his workmates held the guy. If these are the standards it's probably small wonder the local brain donors are hitting the soft targets in the car park to get back at security.

Oh, and I later learnt, from an inside source, that the whole thing kicked off because the lads were throwing chips at each other in McDonalds. Security were called and got heavy handed straight away.

Rew

Got a call from them and you will never guess:

"Nothing on camera they were facing the other way"

KTRIC

What do the little f*cktards gain from keying a car like that ?? When they break into a car and rob stuff then they can make some money for drugs or whatever, but how can they get anything from keying a car ?? I fail to see the attraction.

Our man in Havana

You might have something using the angle of failing in their duty of care by having the cameras facing the other way. I would speak to a lawyer.