Question for a garda

Seifer

Would much appreciate if a garda could answer my below query.

Last saturday night my girlfriends purse was stolen. She rang the bar we were in for the evening and the taxi place and neither has it. So we think it was taken from her pocket as we stood outside the bar after closing.

So she needs a garda report to say it was stolen because she won't have to pay fees to replace some of the cards in her purse if she has one.

She went to the garda station to get one however they would only give her a report saying it was lost and that they would examine "the cctv footage" to see if they could see it being stolen.
They took no information about time frames or anything so I find it a little tough to believe that they're going to comb through hours of cctv from the various extablishments around that area.

So is this standard procedure? Can you not get a report saying something was stolen if there is no cctv or a garda directly seeing it being stolen?

TheNog

You see the problem is we do not investigate lost property, only property that has been stolen. We can record property that was lost alright in the hope it will be handed into a station and certainly endeavour to return it to the rightful owner. In your g/f case she doesnt know if she lost it or if it was stolen. If was stolen then alright there is no problem but we cannot be expected to investigate it to see if it was lost or stolen. At the end of the day and Im not being smart with you, it is the owner's responsibility to look after their property.

As regards property insurance, this is a regular problem and one that I have taken up with the many mobile phone operators. For people who have insured their phones and it is broken say at work etc. The claim form the mobile phone company sends out to the owner states if the phone is lost or stolen, in which case it should be reported and we record it but there is nothing on PULSE for broken property. My view then is it has nothing to do with us and so I have refused to sign and stamp these forms.

Seifer

Thanks for the reply.
Just to clarify so, there is no way to get a report saying it was stolen unless you have some way of proving it was actually stolen and not lost?

fermoyboy

You can't report it stolen unless you can say 100% that it was taken from a certain place.

Your g/f can't say for certain whether she lost the purse or if it was taken from her.

metman

Ordinarily, in the absence of evidence of an offence, it'll be logged as lost property.