Car thieves posing as Gardaì

bbability

Credit: Meath Crime Prevention

Gardai in Ashbourne are looking for your help in relation to a serious incident which occurred over the weekend. At approx 5am last Saturday morning a man driving a blue coloured Nissan Quasqai, reg number 10MH #62 was driving on the M2 towards Ashbourne from the Dublin direction. Two men posing as Garda Detectives pulled him in using a flashing blue light. They were driving a Silver Vauxhall Vectra car, no reg available. The two men posing as Gardai got the man to get out to step out of his car. He did and with that one of the men posing as a Garda got into the car and drive off leaving the owner at the side of the road. The second suspect then got into the Vauxhall car and followed the stolen car.
The driver of the car was uninjured during the theft.
If there was anybody travelling on the M2 near Ashbourne and saw the incident or can help in any way to identify the suspects posing as Gardai can you give Ashbourne Gardai a call on 01-8010600 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800666111. In addition if you know where the Blue Nissan Quasqai car 10MH #62 or the Silver Vauxhall Vectra are will you call Ashbourne Garda Station.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Scary, that. I'm on the road near there each morning at about that time.

Would you be allowed keep driving and ring the local station to see if they actually have a unit in the area?

JustTheOne

Amazing how you just automatically just pull over when you see lights, in hindsight it is quite dangerous.

Bit of a predicament the gards find themselves in now.

edburg

There was polish/serb crew doing this between Gloucester and Exeter on M5 years ago. Certainly scary all right.

Remember over certain registration numbers were used for police before they were changed over to new style plates.

Is it similar more than certain age and on D plate here??

Atlantic Dawn

edburg wrote: »

Is it similar more than certain age and on D plate here??

Normally yes. I wouldn't stop for any car posing as a Gardaí unless it had Dublin plates, no visible insurance disc, not an imported car reg etc. I will keep driving until I either run out of fuel or they attempt to knock me off the road.

Spook_ie

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Normally yes. I wouldn't stop for any car posing as a Gardaí unless it had Dublin plates, no visible insurance disc, not an imported car reg etc. I will keep driving until I either run out of fuel or they attempt to knock me off the road.

Why wouldn't you ring the Gardai or drive towards the nearest large town with a manned station.

I'd imagine you'd also soon know if they were Gardai by the increase in cars following you

Atlantic Dawn

Spook_ie wrote: »

Why wouldn't you ring the Gardai or drive towards the nearest large town with a manned station.

I'd imagine you'd also soon know if they were Gardai by the increase in cars following you

I'd like the chase :cool:

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

ardmacha

The one thing you can say is that the Gardai will not be at all happy about this and will spend a lot more time trying to catch the miscreants than if they had simply hooked your keys from the hall table.

bbability

Its on tonights Evening Hearld also. The lad was dropping his parents to the airport hence the unusual time. Its the second time its happened in recent weeks. They took a van in Trim but it was recovered the next day. General rule of thumb is if you are not doing anything wrong keep going and ring the guards. If it is the guards they'll soon tell you on the phone.

antodeco

Could you ring 999/112 and ask them to check if there are Gardai in that area behind you?

biko

112 is for emergencies, not information.

Suggestion:
If you're not sure about an plain clothes garda, stop and wind window down.
Ask why they stopped you. Ask to see gardai ID.
Say you can meet them at the nearest garda station.

If they fine you for speeding they can just hand you the ticket without you exiting car.

GavMan

The fact it was a Vauxhall should have been a dead giveaway

Tea 1000

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Normally yes. I wouldn't stop for any car posing as a Gardaí unless it had Dublin plates, no visible insurance disc, not an imported car reg etc. I will keep driving until I either run out of fuel or they attempt to knock me off the road.

In fairness, the majority of people out there who have a car with blue flashing light looking for them to pull in don't automatically think "Oh, I wonder if they're really cops". They try to remember what they might have just done.
Also at night you might not be able to see the reg at all.

biko wrote: »

112 is for emergencies, not information.

Suggestion:
If you're not sure about an plain clothes garda, stop and wind window down.
Ask why they stopped you. Ask to see gardai ID.
Say you can meet them at the nearest garda station.

If they fine you for speeding they can just hand you the ticket without you exiting car.

I'd consider it a potential emergency if a crook is impersonating a garda looking to steal your car and possibly injure you. 112 is well manned. You just call and ask for the gards and tell them your location and a brief description of the problem. They'll forward the call, you won't be hogging the line for long, and there are many lines!

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

biko wrote: »

112 is for emergencies, not information.

Suggestion:
If you're not sure about an plain clothes garda, stop and wind window down.
Ask why they stopped you. Ask to see gardai ID.
Say you can meet them at the nearest garda station.

The lad with the van in Trim never got that far. Opened the window and got a belt of a bat.

0lddog

GavMan wrote: »

The fact it was a Vauxhall should have been a dead giveaway

I believe the fleet still boasts a Vauxhall Vectra ( used to be seen frequently around Store St )

CreepingDeath

The Cunning Linguist wrote: »

Would you be allowed keep driving and ring the local station to see if they actually have a unit in the area?

They'd probably do you for using a mobile phone while driving !

GavMan

0lddog wrote: »

I believe the fleet still boasts a Vauxhall Vectra ( used to be seen frequently around Store St )

Strange that. Not listed on wikipedia.

How would they have procured it in the first place. They don't usually but 2nd hand and I doubt they imported new from the UK.

Unless it was seized...

DragonBourne

scary stuff

Pataman

CreepingDeath wrote: »

They'd probably do you for using a mobile phone while driving !

You are allowed to use a phone to ring the emergency services

RandomAccess

GavMan wrote: »

The fact it was a Vauxhall should have been a dead giveaway

It was 5am so an hour before sunrise. If pulled over from behind you might not see it was a Vauxhall until you were out of the car.

Not that you should get out of the car. But on the uk motorway shows they often ask people to sit into the back of their car so they can show you your speed on video..

I can see how he could be caught out, they obviously knew what they were doing so he was caught unawares.

Gazzmonkey

GavMan wrote: »

The fact it was a Vauxhall should have been a dead giveaway

My thoughts exactly

power pants

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

My thoughts exactly

Not everyone cares about cars, let alone what car badge is on the front of an apparent police car that has pulled them over in the dark.

Gazzmonkey

power pants wrote: »

Not everyone cares about cars, let alone what car badge is on the front of an apparent police car that has pulled them over in the dark.

Fair enough, but alarm bells would ringing in my head when I spot the big vauxhall badge illuminated by my brake lights.

power pants

I suppose, I would be suspicious once out the car and I noticed they didnt have either Dunlop or goodyear tyres fitted.

edburg

power pants wrote: »

I suppose, I would be suspicious once out the car and I noticed they didnt have either Dunlop or goodyear tyres fitted.

Some attention to detail that


If i felt something is wrong I probably head straight to a garda station, but like someone said at night and unlit road pretty hard to tell if there an issue .

osheen

edburg wrote: »

Some attention to detail that


If i felt something is wrong I probably head straight to a garda station, but like someone said at night and unlit road pretty hard to tell if there an issue .

A lot of the stations in meath may not be manned at night !

celica00

bbability wrote: »

Its on tonights Evening Hearld also. The lad was dropping his parents to the airport hence the unusual time. Its the second time its happened in recent weeks. They took a van in Trim but it was recovered the next day. General rule of thumb is if you are not doing anything wrong keep going and ring the guards. If it is the guards they'll soon tell you on the phone.

I don't know about that one though.
have been pulled without any obvious reason, just because of the car itself and they wanted to check had I a full window.

So if you keep driving and it is in fact an unmarked guard? trouble!?

GavMan

RandomAccess wrote: »

It was 5am so an hour before sunrise. If pulled over from behind you might not see it was a Vauxhall until you were out of the car.

Not that you should get out of the car. But on the uk motorway shows they often ask people to sit into the back of their car so they can show you your speed on video..

I can see how he could be caught out, they obviously knew what they were doing so he was caught unawares.

It might not be sunrise at that time but there is plenty of light about around 5 in the morning these days

vectra

edburg wrote: »

Some attention to detail that


If i felt something is wrong I probably head straight to a garda station, but like someone said at night and unlit road pretty hard to tell if there an issue .

And when you eventually get there you would be charged with failing to stop when requested to if it were a real garda car.

creedp

celica00 wrote: »

I don't know about that one though.
have been pulled without any obvious reason, just because of the car itself and they wanted to check had I a full window.

So if you keep driving and it is in fact an unmarked guard? trouble!?

I can see this being used as a future defence against trying to outrun the Gardai .. I thought my life was in danger m'lord.

On a more serious note if widely publicised it may make people more reluctant to pull over for blue flashing lights in future .. as a matter of interest do unmarked cars have flashing lights built into headlights/radiator grille as that could be a way of more easily identifying non-garda cars

GavMan

creedp wrote: »

I can see this being used as a future defence against trying to outrun the Gardai .. I thought my life was in danger m'lord.

On a more serious note if widely publicised it may make people more reluctant to pull over for blue flashing lights in future .. as a matter of interest do unmarked cars have flashing lights built into headlights/radiator grille as that could be a way of more easily identifying non-garda cars

Yeah, they'd have the main one plus one on the dash, the front and rear bumpers and I think the headlights flash also

mossy50

just a tax disc on windscreen

edburg

GavMan wrote: »

Yeah, they'd have the main one plus one on the dash, the front and rear bumpers and I think the headlights flash also

The ones hunting on the cork/limerick road have blue lights at top of rear windscreen and radiator grille and alternate flash with headlights.

power pants

yeah, the decals would be something to notice if you were reasonably aware of where the lights tend to be on the unmarked cars

typically behind the front grill, side of the wings and in the front window

Vicxas

Its all very well and good for us, but if it was my mam or my missus they wouldnt know about Vauxhalls.

Its a simple case of dont get out of the car, lock the door and advise you'll meet them at the nearest Garda station.

power pants

walked past a vauxhall vectra in town yesterday. I was suprised how small the badge actually is on them. Always imagined them to bigger, that coupled with the car only a few inches parked behind your car