Theft in progress

doc1976

I was heading to the flicks yesterday evening in Cineworld on Parnell St.
While crossing the road I had a quick look to my left and noticed a gang of about 6-8 teenagers on bikes at the wedding dress shop. After a second glance I noticed a kid yanking a mtb from a bike rack with what must have been 15 ppl watching him from across the road at the cinema entrance.

The bike and the scumbags were gone in about 5 seconds with not one witness saying anything or trying to stop them. I didn't even see anyone on the phone to the cops. I let a yell at the scumbags but they were gone in a flash.

Anyway I called the guards at store st and told what happened and the direction they had gone. The guard on the phone said there would be a squad car there in two minutes and to expect a call from them.

I was there for ten minutes more and didn't see a car or get a call from anyone.
Bad form if ya ask me, they obviously couldn't give a s**t.

penexpers

Shame about the bike being stolen but it sounds like the lock being used was pretty crap. Also bike theft wouldn't be top of the guards list, they probably had more important things to take care of.

doc1976

penexpers wrote: »

Shame about the bike being stolen but it sounds like the lock being used was pretty crap. Also bike theft wouldn't be top of the guards list, they probably had more important things to take care of.

Yeah it was a ****ty cable lock, it looked like they had a go a couple of bikes as there was another on the ground which was still secured.

Kind of understandable that people would be reluctant to confront such a large aggregation of scum.

monument

In fairness to the gardai, they have to prioritise now more than ever given limited resources, cut backs and foolishness like them having to take the cost of the major state visits last year. Even if the theft was prioritised something else could have came up or taken longer to finish off.

To be honest, if they can't get there quickly there's not a whole lot they can do. The young lads generally know what they are doing and scramble quickly.

doc1976 wrote: »

While crossing the road I had a quick look to my left and noticed a gang of about 6-8 teenagers on bikes at the wedding dress shop. After a second glance I noticed a kid yanking a mtb from a bike rack with what must have been 15 ppl watching him from across the road at the cinema entrance.

This is one of the typical ways I've seen and heard about bikes being stolen. I've lost at least one bike and, I think, a second to this method. Although every time I've seen it most of the young teenagers would be on foot. This is the outnumber and confuse method -- it hard for anybody to approach them, hard to get a description of many of them and hard to know what they are doing.

The other main method I know about is typically older teen to twenty-something or a little older acting alone discreetly or with one helper. This is often but not always junkies.

The vague stories about gangs going around in vans etc seems possible but I've only remember reading about that third or forth hand (in paper from garda source).

DePurpereWolf

It seems that a cctv camera at that location might have helped. Come to think of it. Maybe there should be a push towards more CCTV protected bike parking areas throughout town.

check_six

I saw a group of young fellas walk past the bike rack near there a few months back. As they walked past one of them grabbed a random bike and tried to manually wrench it away from the stand. It was only held by an "armoured" cable lock, but it held out against the attack. Probably because the youth had his other arm in a cast and a sling! Very strange indeed.

The attack failed after this brief attempt and the gang wandered off on their way making a kind of grunting laughing type noise. You can see how this kind of unplanned opportunistic grab something for the hell of it type robbery would work against rubbish locks, and how it would mess up your bike if it failed.

I was looking on from across the road and I was just transfixed with the audacity, randomness, and speed at which it all played out. Even if it had been my bike I probably would have still been rooted to the spot, and they would have been gone before I had worked out that I should be reacting. A chilling thought!

I hate to imagine what is going through these lads' heads - me walk, me see, me grab, me walk, etc..

p

DePurpereWolf wrote: »

It seems that a cctv camera at that location might have helped. Come to think of it. Maybe there should be a push towards more CCTV protected bike parking areas throughout town.

Maybe better to just try improve child poverty, education and quality of life for all, rather than just pushing crime around to different locations or types of crime.

doc1976

p wrote: »

Maybe better to just try improve child poverty, education and quality of life for all, rather than just pushing crime around to different locations or types of crime.

Ah come on, give me a break. Oh the poor little scumbags had an unfortunate up-bringing. My family barely had to pence to rub together when I was young but I didn't grow up thinking it was ok to steal other peoples stuff.
Cry me a bloody river.

donal2000

That area is notorious for bike thefts. They are targeting locks which are easily snapped.

kumate_champ07

theres a gang of kids 14-16 that walk/cycle along that area checking out which bikes have cheap cable locks. its a constant problem I believe. you can see them in plain view but what can you do?

boombang

I had the top tube of a lovely old Raleigh racer bent by a gang of young scummers just off O'Connell st who tried to pull my lock. The lock held by my bike was damaged. I saw the group that did it as they moved off trying other bikes. I approached a Ban Garda, but she wasn't interested.

I have no sympathy for these kids. Poverty's no excuse for being an arsehole.

In fairness to the Gardai I've seen them respond quickly and efficiently to bike crime on other occasions.

PCPhoto

check_six wrote: »

I hate to imagine what is going through these lads' heads - me walk, me see, me grab, me walk, etc..

simple ... scumbag behaviour at its best .... whats going through his head is ......"I want this " .... "I'm taking this" ..... "This is mine"

(the law doesn't punish them if/when caught so there is no deterrent)