Cars broken into Mornington Beach

borderlinemeath

Hi All,

Parked down on Mornington Beach yesterday afternoon to take the dog for a walk, came back to find my car broken into and handbag taken from the boot. Not only did they take a screwdriver to the car, when that didn't work they smashed the rear window.

I had put the bag in the boot from within the car rather than opening the boot, but somebody was obviously watching me closely even though I had looked about, turned the car and there didn't seem to be anybody about bar one other car parked well over 100 metres away.

Anyhow, went into the texaco garage just beside the road down to the beach and the girl behind the till told me that I was about the fourth or fifth person within a couple of weeks that it's happened to!

So just be vigilant, don't let the scumbags get away with it, even by sitting in the car for an extra minute or two, they will watch and think you're concealing something.

carwash_2006

If you are parking a vehicle at a deserted car park anywhere (but beaches do seem to be a hot spot) try to make sure that they can see into the car and there is obviously nothing of interest there.

Even if you have nothing in the vehicle if they can't see they are likely to break the windows.

umpire bat

I had a similar experience at the slipway down to Gormanston Beach beyond the railway station a few years ago. Best bet now is park in station there is CCTV

borderlinemeath

According to the gardai there is a spate of thefts from cars between mornington/bettystown/laytown area. They are sitting up in the dunes and using binoculars to see into cars when people pull up.

From now on I'll be parking up close to the main road and the garage.

umpire bat

Noticed broken glass ( car window) at the stile leading to one of the Battle of the Boyne fields ( on lhs of road to Donore from the last lock on the Boyne Navigation) while at Ras na h Eireann last sunday. The are has a real car break in problem. The goujers target places like Hill of Slane also.

ArtSmart

ahh, the days when mornington was a nice crime free area. sigh

rhapsody

I had a similar experience at the slipway down to Gormanston Beach beyond the railway station a few years ago. Best bet now is park in station there is CCTV

Sadly parking in Gorm carpark,, directly in line with the CCT, did nothing for me when my car got broken into last year. The Gardai couldn't get hold of the video footage etc etc, they said alot of cars have been broken into in that carpark, particularly in the summer.

OP- sorry this happened to you, hope there wasn't too much in the bag?

borderlinemeath

Unfortunately there was a good bit in it. Lesson learned.

I was down there yesterday again, I had taken my boot cover off and left it at home so any would be thief could see directly into the boot and that there was nothing in it.
I parked beside a few other cars and when I came back there was broken glass where one of them had been parked so they are still getting away with it.

There was an article in the Drogheda Leader about the "alarming" increase in car theft in the area, they also noted that they are breaking into cars when their owners are attending mass.

Unfortunately I don't think anybody will ever get caught or prosecuted for any of these, the gardai in Laytown seem very under resourced, half the time their phone line diverts to Navan, the nearest Meath juristiction, which is ridiculous as the Drogheda and Balbriggan stations are far closer.