So I called 999

carzony

I rang 999 at 2.30 this morning to tell them that gardai were needed. I left my name and house number as my neighbours car was getting stripped of it's parts by 5 men in hoddy's. Not only did they turn up at 3.00(half hour:eek:) but when they got here they completely drove past my neighbours car even though the rear lights, front headlight and 1 wheel has been taken. Little bastards even left the boot all the way up.. How they didnt notice that i'll never know.

Then the garda come back round and shines a torch at my house to check the address as if i want the thugs knowing i was the one who called them. :mad:

I'm a big supporter of Garda and I know a lot of them in my area that are sound but half hour wait and then when they do get here all they do is drive up the road:rolleyes:...

Neighbours car is completely gutted and i'd say it'll cost a good few quid to put it right again. :rolleyes:

Before anyone says anything: Last time I frightened thugs away I woke up the next morning with my car windows smashed in....

MadsL

carzony wrote: »

I rang 999 at 2.30 this morning to tell them that gardai were needed. I left my name and house number as my neighbours car was getting stripped of it's parts by 5 men in hoddy's. Not only did they turn up at 3.00(half hour:eek:) but when they got here they completely drove past my neighbours car even though the rear lights, front headlight and 1 wheel has been taken. Little bastards even left the boot all the way up.. How they didnt notice that i'll never know.

Then the garda come back round and shines a torch at my house to check the address as if i want the thugs knowing i was the one who called them. :mad:

I'm a big supporter of Garda and I know a lot of them in my area that are sound but half hour wait and then when they do get here all they do is drive up the road:rolleyes:...

Neighbours car is completely gutted and i'd say it'll cost a good few quid to put it right again. :rolleyes:

Before anyone says anything: Last time I frightened thugs away I woke up the next morning with my car windows smashed in....

Jeez, I bet the guards were just finishing their tea, what with it being a summer Friday evening in a heatwave and nothing out there happening on the streets at all.

I take it your neighbour has insurance.

stefan idiot jones

Unfortunately they were probably dealing with some assholes in Abrakebabra at that time in the morning than dealing with 'proper' issues.

It depends on the area you're in and how many Gardaí are available (it's a Friday night like...), they'll also give priority to calls that involve immediate danger to a person rather than a car being stripped for parts.

As for them not noticing the car immediately, was it possible they actually did notice it but also realised nobody was at the car anymore so started looking elsewhere for the suspects?

carzony

Sacramento wrote: »

As for them not noticing the car immediately, was it possible they actually did notice it but also realised nobody was at the car anymore so started looking elsewhere for the suspects?

Maybe so but they came all the way round again just to check my address. The car that was robbed is about 15 houses up from me. I thought they'd atleast get out of their car to look...

carzony

carzony wrote: »

Maybe so but they came all the way round again just to check my address. The car that was robbed is about 15 houses up from me. I thought they'd atleast get out of their car to look...

Ok, I'd doubt yours was the only house they shined the torch at though so I'd say you don't have anything to worry about. They would be unlikely to get out of the car unless they spotted anyone about that looked suspicious.

Did the thieves use a car to get away since they were likely to have had many heavy parts of the car still on them?

Canis Lupus

I noticed a guy about to put a screwdriver through a window of a car once whilst I was outside having a smoke. I just coughed loudly which scared him (it was night time) but once he realised someone was around he ran off.

Long story short, you don't necessarily have to confront someone directly to scare them away. Whacking on a few lights outdoors might simply be enough.

Turpentine

MadsL wrote: »

Jeez, I bet the guards were just finishing their tea, what with it being a summer Friday evening in a heatwave and nothing out there happening on the streets at all.

I take it your neighbour has insurance.

Ah, well then it's okay so. No harm done. Victimless crime is it?

Sofiztikated

Do people really think that

A) 100's of Gardai hang about, waiting to be called,
they drive supersonic cars.

30 minute response time, on a Friday night at chucking out time isn't bad.

Turpentine

Turpentine wrote: »

Ah, well then it's okay so. No harm done. Victimless crime is it?

Calm down, he didn't say that, he didn't even suggest it in his post. If anything he's suggesting that the streets on a Friday night were busy and as a consequence, an insured car being stripped for parts would not be top priority for the Gardaí.

MadsL

MadsL wrote: »

Jeez, I bet the guards were just finishing their tea, what with it being a summer Friday evening in a heatwave and nothing out there happening on the streets at all.

I take it your neighbour has insurance.

Insurance solves everything.:rolleyes:

Banjo String

See OP.....

If you'd have been a stone cutter like me you'd not have bothered with any 999 number. ...998 is the real emergency number.












(Shiit I've said too much:mad:)

foxinsox

I wouldn't consider that an emergency.

999 is for life or death emergencies.

You should have the number of your local Garda station for calls like that.

Half hour is fantastic response time.

I had to call Gardai last week and was told, I'd have to wait til they got back into town... All two of them...

[Jackass]

You did all you can do OP. It sucks, but that's how it is. In fairness, I don't think it's the guards fault, they can only do so much with the resources they have, but I doubt they took their time or didn't give a sh*t, more a question of getting a unit available and prioritising a mass brawl in town or whatever over car vandalism / theft unfortunately.

As for tackeling them yourselves, I hate to say it, but it's not worth it. I once caught a guy IN MY HOUSE! and chased him out onto the roof and tackled him and called the guards and a few days later, for my troubles and for being an asshole by preventing someone robbing my house, I got just about every front window bricked in :rolleyes:

Scumbags are here to stay unfortunately, we just need to try and watch our own stuff and if you see them, call 999 and that's it.

EazyD

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Do people really think that

A) 100's of Gardai hang about, waiting to be called,
they drive supersonic cars.

30 minute response time, on a Friday night at chucking out time isn't bad.

Limitations are a reality, but 30 mins is too long IMHO. You'd probably think the same were it your car being stripped.

Wibbs

foxinsox wrote: »

999 is for life or death emergencies.

You should have the number of your local Garda station for calls like that.

This +1000, you'll usually get a faster response time for incidents like this by ringing the local lads.

Half hour is fantastic response time.

It's not too bad at all for a property type crime. One night around 3 AM on a mate of mine's road(quiet cul de sac in quiet estate) a pack of scum showed up and basically broke into or attempted to break into all the cars on the cul de sac(they stole one IIRC). These scum were that brazen. As you can imagine quite the number of people phoned the cops and what happened? The Guards showed up at 10 o'clock the next morning(the large police station is a fifteen minute drive away at legal speeds). This guys road and others in the estate have been targeted by packs of scum in similar ways and not one arrest made on the back of it. No wonder some scum are so brazen. On the other hand my local station is pretty good in response time. So YMMV. That said 15 years ago when a car was stolen from the driveway of my house at 1230(like an idiot I had no alarm, well I did but a crap one) I rang the local station and told the guy I was watching my car driving up the road. His response? "sure what do you want me to do about it". The air turned blue at that point and I suggested his parents were likely too closely related and that as a result he was a fcukwit.

OP I presume the owner of the car was away? Stripping a car like that at night would make some racket I would have thought. I'd be surprised if others hadn't rung the cops too. This is why I have motion sensor lights on my gaff and a car alarm that would wake the dead in the graveyards. In Canada. And a house alarm that I can trigger from inside. Like rats and cockroaches, scum hate noise and light and will 9 times outa 10 scurry back to their burrows, or look for easier targets in the presence of both.

December2012

It is not the fault of the Gardai if they are delayed getting to a crime because they are dealing with other crime. It's the scumbag criminals fault.

biko

They were probably dealing with more important matters than things getting nicked off of a car.
However it's scary to think scum can just come and take what they like without any consequences.

EyeSight

30 mins is not a good response time....
stop settling for a ****ty service! i am sure they do the best they can and need more resources but they should be aiming for a couple of minutes per call(unless it is a remote area)

Sofiztikated

EazyD wrote: »

Limitations are a reality, but 30 mins is too long IMHO. You'd probably think the same were it your car being stripped.

Don't get me wrong, if it were my car, I'd be pissed if they weren't there the second I hung up, but realistically, it's not bad, as I said, for a Friday night, at chucking out time.

hfallada

Call the actually garda station as 999/112 is a joke. I call them about a fight that was going to break out and I got about 2/3 mins of questioning on the phone of did I think there was knifes or gun on the people involved. Where as if I called the station someone would have been there at that stage

Cavehill Red

I'm always fascinated by how accepting Irish people are of chomping down on the sh!t sandwiches they are served by the state.
Our police, sorry to say, are rubbish. There's not enough of them and too many of them seem to be happy to write off a lot of crime as too hard to investigate or beneath them too investigate.
I'd like to see more police, but more better motivated police. Not the ones happy to spend their shift time parked outside Centra eating breakfast rolls, but the ones who really are eager to investigate and eradicate crime. And I want to see them properly supported by their senior officers, so that investigating crime is prioritised. There seems to be a tacit understanding in AGS at senior levels that as long as you get the murderers, about half the rapists, and bust every weed-growing operation or speeding car, you've done the job admirably.
Frankly, that's not the case, and the people deserve better, yet judging from threads like these we have become resigned to crime and resigned to shoddy police work.

lkionm

Why can we call these people scum but members of other ethnic minorities we can't and have to pussy foot around since we are labelling a group of people scum are they not their own sub culture?

They are scum though, I was driving out of limerick city one night and 2 lads were walking out with cans. Regular enough. But when I passing them they threw some clay ****e off my windscreen. I stopped and went back to them and told them they were hard men and they acted clueless. I rang the po po and they gav out to me for leaving the scene of the crime.

Aidric

They probably had a student house party to break up.

flas

one night couple of months ago,mid week we had some trying to break in through the front door of the house down stairs,it was about 4 in the mornin,i was only home from work at 2 so was stillup, rang the garda station and told them what was happening, i was sitting looking out the window at this lunatic with branches and everything trying to beat in the door,half hour passes and no sign of garda, this chap still going at the door with kicks and branches, after an hour he gives up and saunters off, anhour and forty five minutes later the guards car drives by the house,slows down a bit and then drives off...mid week at 4 in the morning it took these useless ****s 1 hour an 45 minutes to drive by...,I live about 500 meters from the station!

Lingua Franca

I don't understand why we think "sure 30 minutes isn't bad". It is bad. It wouldn't wash in other countries. We've had cause to call the Dutch cops twice, once for a suspicious car with a camera on the roof filming inside our house and once because we drove past a row of cars with the passengers windows smashed in. Both times the cops were there within 5 minutes.

There's not much I'd say the Americans get right but they do tend to dispatch cops immediately to crimes in progress.

30 minutes response to a crime in progress is abysmal. The gards should be catching criminals, not giving out report numbers for you to give to your insurance.

Lingua Franca

lkionm wrote: »

Why can we call these people scum but members of other ethnic minorities we can't

Since when were thieves an ethnic minority? Since when were all ethnic minorities thieves?

You can't tell the difference between criminals and ethnic minorities. That's why you can't call them scum.

msg11

30 Mins for such a call is strange in fairness, usually calls like that are responded to quickly as the suspects are still there. Well when I have heard such calls someone takes it.

Any amount of reasons for the wait, lazyness, priority call for assistance like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t060bMkiu_M , dispatch making a mess of the call causing a delay or god forbid someone mention but no Garda actually available to take the call, drivers tied up in the station so no transport.

Cool_CM

EyeSight wrote: »

30 mins is not a good response time....
stop settling for a ****ty service! i am sure they do the best they can and need more resources but they should be aiming for a couple of minutes per call(unless it is a remote area)

Again, for a Friday night at a time when people are being kicked out of bars, with current garda resources and for a non life threatening issue it is a good response time.

Obvioulsy everybody would like for the gardai to be on the scene of everything in a matter of minutes, but stop and be realistic about things for a second.

Capt'n Midnight

2,000 promised new Gardaí , and then you have to remember that 600 are retiring every year. The problem is that Garda numbers haven't kept up with recent population growth. At current replacement rates it would take 160 years to train enough to match today's population.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/training-of-additional-2000-gardai-will-take-40-years-25946857.html

THE Government's plans to recruit an additional 2,000 personnel into the Garda Siochana will take at least 40 years to complete, according to estimates yesterday.
...
Mr Kirby said the college could handle a maximum output per year of 650 student gardai at present and that figure pushed existing capacity structures to the limit.

At the same the number of gardai currently leaving the force either through retirement or resignation was estimated this year to reach 600 and that figure was likely to remain constant in the foreseeable future.

This left a gap between new recruits and natural wastage of 50 personnel a year - resulting in a wait of 40 years before the 2,000 target could be achieved.
...
Analysts reckon as a result of the massive increase in the population within the past seven years the force would probably need an additional 8,000 personnel rather than 2,000 to provide the same level of policing.

8,000

carzony

I agree, The 999 is a complete joke the amount of questions was unreal and I was asked to spell my address about 3 times.

These lads didnt give a **** and I actually heard them banging and turning on and off the headlights (trying to hotwire) . Many taxis went up the road in that time but they just stood there continuing stealing the parts. They were there for 15 minutes. I was shocked garda took so long.

I don't blame gardai fot the crappy response time but I do blame them for getting the ****ing torch at my gaf, I can't explain how obvious they made it look..

I'll be buying a baseball bat lads, Not gonna depend on them again and I live in a Dublin with 3 gardai station about 10 mintues from me. Feel sorry for the country people now

lkionm

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Since when were thieves an ethnic minority? Since when were all ethnic minorities thieves?

You can't tell the difference between criminals and ethnic minorities. That's why you can't call them scum.

If the op ad said they were travellers or anyone else the mods would be waving the infraction stick at us is what I mean.

positron

foxinsox wrote: »

Half hour is fantastic response time.

For a crime in progress with some prospoect of catching the criminals in the act?

Flipping hell, I thought this was a first word country.

Boombastic

[Jackass] wrote: »

You did all you can do OP. It sucks, but that's how it is. In fairness, I don't think it's the guards fault, they can only do so much with the resources they have, but I doubt they took their time or didn't give a sh*t, more a question of getting a unit available and prioritising a mass brawl in town or whatever over car vandalism / theft unfortunately.

As for tackeling them yourselves, I hate to say it, but it's not worth it. I once caught a guy IN MY HOUSE! and chased him out onto the roof and tackled him and called the guards and a few days later, for my troubles and for being an asshole by preventing someone robbing my house, I got just about every front window bricked in :rolleyes:

Scumbags are here to stay unfortunately, we just need to try and watch our own stuff and if you see them, call 999 and that's it.

Luckily he didn't fall off the roof accidentally ;-) maybe next time

honerbright

Last year I lived in the middle of Galway City Center and I had my front door completely smashed in. It took the Gardaí over an hour to show up (Early hours of a tuesday morning, and the station was only a 5 minute drive away), they took a statement and we never heard back from them, despite the amount of CCTV in the area and the fact a neighbor had seen the two guys, so we even had a description and the first name of one of them :rolleyes:.

woodoo

I think this was a great lead for the guards. It sounded like a gang that specialises in stealing things like catalytic converters. You could be sure this wasn't their first car. Catching these sort of criminals is much more important than moving some cantankerous drunk on from Abrakababra.

woodoo

Lingua Franca wrote: »

There's not much I'd say the Americans get right but they do tend to dispatch cops immediately to crimes in progress.

Thats true, ever see footage on youtube of a crime scene and there are about 10 cop cars at the scene in mins.

MadsL

Turpentine wrote: »

Ah, well then it's okay so. No harm done. Victimless crime is it?

Compared to some lad getting his face battered, um, yes.

Deleted User wrote: »

Insurance solves everything.:rolleyes:

Not everything, but in this case the OPs neighbour gets everything fixed for a small excess. Yes, it would be great to catch the lads who did it but at the end of the day...

I have had two cars damaged on the street, one a brick through the back window that was NOT covered by insurance, the other my car was burned out completely (six done in the same street in the same night)

I did not blame the Gardai for it.

Lingua Franca wrote: »

There's not much I'd say the Americans get right but they do tend to dispatch cops immediately to crimes in progress..

They also don't tend to call 911 for incidents like this, in fact round by me they hardly call 911 at all. Creeping around a man's car at night will get you some high velocity metal coming your way that you didn't expect.

MadsL

woodoo wrote: »

Thats true, ever see footage on youtube of a crime scene and there are about 10 cop cars at the scene in mins.

Good luck finding a youtube video of cops attending someone stripping a car. Those vids tend to be a bit more dramatic crimes.

Or..as in Houston they are a bit more proactive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISMPKwprDo

Wibbs

flas wrote: »

one night couple of months ago,mid week we had some trying to break in through the front door of the house down stairs,it was about 4 in the mornin,i was only home from work at 2 so was stillup, rang the garda station and told them what was happening, i was sitting looking out the window at this lunatic with branches and everything trying to beat in the door,half hour passes and no sign of garda, this chap still going at the door with kicks and branches, after an hour he gives up and saunters off, anhour and forty five minutes later the guards car drives by the house,slows down a bit and then drives off...mid week at 4 in the morning it took these useless ****s 1 hour an 45 minutes to drive by...,I live about 500 meters from the station!

Jesus. Yea now that I think back... an mate of mine many moons ago was on her own in her house late at night and heard movements outside. Next thing two scum started kicking her door in. She rang the cops and gave them the lowdown. Now this is a woman on her own with two scum yelling and kicking her door down. A car was on it's way blah blah. She then rang me in a panic(naturally) and I could hear the noise over the phone. So I got in my car and headed her way. Now I was a good 45 mins away from her, more like an hour at legal speeds. By the time I got there one of her neighbours, a huge Polish bloke had shown up and the worthless excuses for humanity took flight. The Garda? 3 hours later.

If something like that happened again? My advice, would be to tell them you have a legally held shotgun and you're in fear of your life and will use it. See the response time drop then.

MadsL wrote: »

Or..as in Houston they are a bit more proactive.

Great idea, ditto with bait cars to catch scum. They have really dropped car crime in jurisdictions where they've been used. Never gonna happen here sadly.

The other issue is not the Garda. Indeed IMH the biggest problem are the lawmakers and the judiciary. Even if and when a Garda goes that extra yard and gets the ratboys in front of a judge 9 outa 10 they'll walk out. That's the big problem. No wonder many Guards become disillusioned, or aim at crimes they can secure convictions more easily. Look at the recent crackdown on burglaries by the Guards. They've caught a couple of thosand of these worthless scum and fair bloody play. Now sit back and watch how many get convicted and more, how many get custodial sentences. I don't need to be mystic Meg to predict it'll be sweet fcuk all that's how many. Crime against the person is treated seriously, however look at the daft sentences handed down even there. Crime against property is waaaaaaay down on the list. Basically you gotta protect your own shít in any way you can.

EyeSight

Cool_CM wrote: »

Again, for a Friday night at a time when people are being kicked out of bars, with current garda resources and for a non life threatening issue it is a good response time.

Obvioulsy everybody would like for the gardai to be on the scene of everything in a matter of minutes, but stop and be realistic about things for a second.

i don't care what time or day it is, it is not a good response time. If the guards are always too busy for calls at that time then more are needed. It's that simple.
But because people like you think it's good, nothing will change to make it better

UCDVet

EazyD wrote: »

Limitations are a reality, but 30 mins is too long IMHO. You'd probably think the same were it your car being stripped.

As much as people don't want to admit it....

The Garda are (as a whole) decent enough folk. But we live in the real world, and in the real world there are limitations on how fast someone can travel a particular distance, safely. There are limitations on how many places a Garda can be at one time. There are also limitations on how much tax payers are willing to pay to fund the Garda.

The Garda are not a personal security squad that can fly in, like Batman, and stop crimes in progress.

When someone bad happens, people like to blame the Garda. Does anyone really think the 30 minute delay in this instance was due to the Garda sleeping? Most likely, they were involved in another incident immediately prior.

On an individual level, you can realistically expect the Garda to show up and help you file a claim with your insurance. This isn't TV, and they don't have magic labs. They aren't going to dust the stripped car for prints and apprehend the five guys the next day.

On a macro level though, criminals repeat crimes and the Garda catch them, eventually. They make it more dangerous to be criminals and things would certainly be a lot worse without them. Thieves don't just steal things, they sell them. It's a business. And when a lot of things are getting stolen and resold, sooner or later, the Garda figures it out. They don't operate (and shouldn't) with the goal of figuring out who did every crime....again, real limitations of reality. They are most effective operating at a higher level.

If you want to protect your property - get insurance and theft deterrent devices.

If you want to protect your family - get a security system, guns, and appropriate training.

If you want an immediate response team - hire security staff.

carzony

UCDVet wrote: »

If you want to protect your property - get insurance and theft deterrent devices.

If you want to protect your family - get a security system, guns, and appropriate training.

If you want an immediate response team - hire security staff.

Why? everyone pays enough taxes to keep things like the Gardai going. If they can't deal with any of the above then what's the point? As for guns and appropriate training, I guarantee if you even punched one of those scumbags you'd be the one going to court..

oldyouth

Gardai should be able to respond quicker than 30 minutes. If they can catch these thugs for a crime like this, they may come across villains that they have being chasing for more serious stuff and put them away. The old Al Capone method

MadsL

oldyouth wrote: »

Gardai should be able to respond quicker than 30 minutes. If they can catch these thugs for a crime like this, they may come across villains that they have being chasing for more serious stuff and put them away. The old Al Capone method

They should study suspects tax records??

oldyouth

MadsL wrote: »

They should study suspects tax records??

Don't be smart, I'm suggesting getting criminals convicted on seemingly minor charges when you know they are guilty of offences more difficult to prove

MadsL

carzony wrote: »

Why? everyone pays enough taxes to keep things like the Gardai going. If they can't deal with any of the above then what's the point? As for guns and appropriate training, I guarantee if you even punched one of those scumbags you'd be the one going to court..

Received wisdom here is that if you ever have to use your gun here you keep firing until the target is down. Dead men find it hard to sue you.

Cool_CM

EyeSight wrote: »

If the guards are always too busy for calls at that time then more are needed. It's that simple

I don't think it is that simple. Where would that money come from? Education? Health? Raised taxes?

spank_inferno

30 mins is a poor response time.

quick comparison to my parents in rural wisconsin.

My mom accidently hit the '911' speed-dial but hung up immediately seeing the mistake.

within 20 mins a state trooper had called to the house just to make sure everything was ok.

I doubt you would get that service here..... and it's not about resources, its about attitude.

Basil Fawlty

I live in Dun Laoghaire and the week before Christmas I had a chap try to break into my house on a Saturday night at 1 in the morning while I was in the house watching tv. As soon as the scumbag realised I was in the house he made his escape out the back garden at which point I rang the police immediately.Within 5 mins (I live within 1 mile of a Garda station) I had 4 garda cars screaming down my road covering all areas. Within ten minutes the guy was in handcuffs. I was extremely impressed and it totally changed my perception of the force. They told me after that they live to catch someone red handed, which I can totally understand.

Riddle101

Should have called TheCitizen OP. He'd have been there are lot sooner then the Gardaí to sort them out.