Phone stolen on Stephens Green. What level of investigation will Gardaí carry out?

Lostinspace

So I had a work night out last Thursday night. I stopped for food on the way home on Grafton Street and walked up to Stephens Green towards Harcourt Street (exact location below).

It was just before 4am and two guys came towards me. One of them walked up and pretended to hug me. I was eating food at the time. He came up and brushed off me and then walked away with his friend. I thought is was a bit odd but kept walking. 100 meters up the road I put my hand in my pocket and realised my phone wasn't there.

I went back but couldn't find the two guys in question. I then went down to Pearse St. Garda and reported it. She recorded it. I went back down tonight and queued for 90 minutes to be told that she wasn't on duty and hadn't updated the Pulse system.

Realistically, what will the Gardaí do in this situation? I know the time it was stolen and I'm 99% sure these two guys came down from Hartcourt St onto Stephens Green. I counted approximately 15 CCTV cameras between the Fitzwilliam hotel and Conradh na Gaeilge on Hartcourt Street (including 2 Garda cameras which were pointing up Hartcourt Street at the time).

I'm going to ring Pearse again tomorrow as the Garda is on duty but realistically, could I expect her to request CCTV footage from the various businesses along Stephens Green? I have a list of all the cameras and have no doubt that these guys would be clearly visible as the left me and walked towards Grafton Street.

I know it's only a phone but I had recent important photos and contact details on it that weren't unfortunately weren't backed up. I tried locating it on Google phone finder but it was turned off immediately.

Uno my Uno.

You can expect Very little investigation, certainly it is highly unlikely that the Garda will request cctv for the sake of your phone. It is of course a significant loss to you but in the course of a day in the city it is a very minor matter.

The likelihood is that the Gardai already know who took your phone, most of the petty criminals operating in the city center are well known to them. It may happen that if stolen goods or phones recovered and yours is one of them you have a reasonable chance of getting it back at some point.

Mr. Incognito

This made me think of this immediately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBcNpXmr-Ps

I would expect little or no effort at all. They are busy dealing with real crime. You can request the CCTV off the businesses yourself before it is deleted.

Little CuChulainn

She'll probably take a statement on get the cctv. Usually this would not be the case but the fact that you have an exact time and location makes it different. The cctv will be posted on the Garda network to see if anyone can identify the suspects. That's about as far as it will go unless they are identifiable by someone who sees it.

jezzer

Lostinspace wrote: »

So I had a work night out last Thursday night. I stopped for food on the way home on Grafton Street and walked up to Stephens Green towards Harcourt Street (exact location below).

It was just before 4am and two guys came towards me. One of them walked up and pretended to hug me. I was eating food at the time. He came up and brushed off me and then walked away with his friend. I thought is was a bit odd but kept walking. 100 meters up the road I put my hand in my pocket and realised my phone wasn't there.

I went back but couldn't find the two guys in question. I then went down to Pearse St. Garda and reported it. She recorded it. I went back down tonight and queued for 90 minutes to be told that she wasn't on duty and hadn't updated the Pulse system.

Realistically, what will the Gardaí do in this situation? I know the time it was stolen and I'm 99% sure these two guys came down from Hartcourt St onto Stephens Green. I counted approximately 15 CCTV cameras between the Fitzwilliam hotel and Conradh na Gaeilge on Hartcourt Street (including 2 Garda cameras which were pointing up Hartcourt Street at the time).

I'm going to ring Pearse again tomorrow as the Garda is on duty but realistically, could I expect her to request CCTV footage from the various businesses along Stephens Green? I have a list of all the cameras and have no doubt that these guys would be clearly visible as the left me and walked towards Grafton Street.

I know it's only a phone but I had recent important photos and contact details on it that weren't unfortunately weren't backed up. I tried locating it on Google phone finder but it was turned off immediately.

The simple answer is none....investigating your theft wont generate any revenue for the cops like stopping someone for no tax would therefore they have probably already threw your report in the bin

sumsar

So far the comments are negative but to give some positive feedback, about roughly 4 years ago I was walking along O'Connell street with two pals during the day and we witnessed a girl get mugged, her phone was stolen by a scumbag lad who we chased (who then threatened us off with a syringe), moments later we seen a garda car, reported it and about roughly a month later we got a call to go in and give our reports again as the lad was identified and found...

So from experience, we witnessed someones phone being robbed, reported it and a month later they contacted us again as they found the lad, so sounds as though it's possible for a good outcome for you.

MarkAnthony

I used to work in the O2 store near SG, it was a daily occurrence that someone would come in having just had their phone nicked. This was about 10 years ago mind but just to let you know the volume of reports they're probably getting.

Typer Monkey

Realistically there is zero chance of whoever stole your phone still having it in their possession should they be identified and arrested. They offload them pretty much immediately after stealing them

smeal

Had my i-phone stolen just off O'Connell St over the summer- a guy came back on a bike and swiped it from my hand as I was about to make a call. I reported it straight away at the Garda Station- the Garda on duty did a bit of ringing around about cameras but turns out half the cameras in Dublin 1 don't work!! I'd say in the ten mins it took from the mugging to the time I got to the station the phone would have been flogged in one of those phone shops for about 50 quid or less.

At the time the Garda on duty was very helpful in terms of helping me ring my service provider and insurance company to have the phone blocked. I was meant to go back 2 days later to make an official statement and apparently he was off duty even though he had specifically told me to come at that time. Nobody ever contacted me again about it.

Unfortunately, the strong likelihood is that there won't be much more they will/can do. The Gardai's attitude to phone snatching in Dublin is "yeah it's a big problem- hundreds of them are stolen every week" and treat you like you're just another number but the reality is that it is a very shaking experience and tbh OP, we're lucky that we're able to tell these stories without injury or worse. The same day I got my phone stolen was the same night that that poor guy was stabbed on North Strand for his phone- fairly chilling considering it easily could have been the same offender

amen

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I would expect little or no effort at all. They are busy dealing with real crime. You can request the CCTV off the businesses yourself before it is deleted.

but it is real crime. Say 100 phones stolen a week and the thief receives €50.00 a phone then thats €5,000 a week for the thief or maybe the money is used to buy drugs.

carlostj22

I know a guy who robbed 100euro from a shop. The gardai were all over it. Raids CCTV u name it prison time the lot. Ur just a stupid tax paying citizen so u know where to go with ur thoughts of getting justice.

smeal

Of course its a crime. These guys are making more than many of us do in a week from snatching innocent people's property often from their hands and often accompanied by violence or verbal abuse. As someone already mentioned above they were threatened with a syringe- that is a serious offence in itself. The problem is ridiculously commonplace around Dublin- not just in areas off O'Connell St or areas where you would more likely assume these things to happen- but I know two people who were mugged for their phones in broad daylight in the IFSC and also near Kildare Street all in recent times.

The problem is being swept under the carpet, Gardai aren't following up with deeper investigations and these people aren't getting caught. And if they are caught, they aren't prosecuted for it and are usually on the same bus home from court as the Garda who has tried to prosecute him in the first place.

Little CuChulainn

smeal wrote: »

Of course its a crime. These guys are making more than many of us do in a week from snatching innocent people's property often from their hands and often accompanied by violence or verbal abuse. As someone already mentioned above they were threatened with a syringe- that is a serious offence in itself. The problem is ridiculously commonplace around Dublin- not just in areas off O'Connell St or areas where you would more likely assume these things to happen- but I know two people who were mugged for their phones in broad daylight in the IFSC and also near Kildare Street all in recent times.

The problem is being swept under the carpet, Gardai aren't following up with deeper investigations and these people aren't getting caught. And if they are caught, they aren't prosecuted for it and are usually on the same bus home from court as the Garda who has tried to prosecute him in the first place.

Unfortunately there appears to be some major issue with pinging phones. I'm not sure if this is a data protection thing or reluctance from the phone companies. I've also heard that there is a very large charge, in the thousands, for pinging a phone. If this could be sorted between the Gardaí and phone companies then many of these cases could be solved very quickly. In the meantime, the tracking apps can be very helpful to investigating Gardaí so I'd advise most people to install one.

Lostinspace

Thanks for all the replies, which i guess confirms my original thoughts anyway that the Guards aren't really that bothered. I spoke to the guy who owns the mobile chipper on the corner as you go up towards Hartcourt st and he said there was a guy stabbed a few weeks back across the road by the Luas for not giving up hos phone. I guess i was lucky in a way but I'm still very p*ssed off. If I had known what he was at then the only way i would have given up the phone was if he had a knife or weapon of some sort.

I spend an hour and a half in Pearse St last night and the amount of people that came in with stolen phone complaints. You could see the Gardai had absolutely no interest. The guard told me to ring back today. I tried ringing about 12 times today but do you think anyone in Pearse St would answer the phone? Not a chance!

What annoys me is that someone goes into the station, reports a phone lost/stolen. The Guard takes a written statement, which takes about 10 minutes, then goes in the back to record it in Pulse, which takes another 10 minutes. They could just have a laptop in the back, take it out when it's needed and record the statement on the computer and print it off and stamp it. 4 people last night took an hour and a half to serve. They were probably doing the exact same today when they wouldn't bother answering my calls. Levels of productivity with regards admin in Garda stations must be pretty low. Anyway rant over!

I'm not going to leave this lie. I've asked my friend who's a Guard to have a look on Pulse and ring the lady who took my statement. I'm also going to chase up the CCTV myself and hopefully the businesses will be kind enough to spare 5 minutes or so of their time. Even if this fella sold off my phone I want to pursue him as much as I can. If i had a baseball bat!

Little CuChulainn

Gardaí are not allowed put stuff on PULSE themselves anymore. They have to ring up a call centre and get them to put it on. The government had some spare civil servants in Mayo and set up this system to give them jobs. It also saved on training Gardaí everytime the system was updated. That call centre is now very understaffed and it can take 15 minutes to get an answer alone, then at least five to put on an incident and get a crime reference number. Traffic collisions take at least twenty minutes to record. All in the name of efficiency and accountability.

kaiser sauze

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

Unfortunately there appears to be some major issue with pinging phones. I'm not sure if this is a data protection thing or reluctance from the phone companies. I've also heard that there is a very large charge, in the thousands, for pinging a phone. If this could be sorted between the Gardaí and phone companies then many of these cases could be solved very quickly. In the meantime, the tracking apps can be very helpful to investigating Gardaí so I'd advise most people to install one.

SSM7 is zero cost, but that depends on a known SIM.

'Pinging the phone' via its IMEI also depends on a SIM. No SIM, no network, no IMEI registration.

rubberdiddies

Unfortunately there is a pretty strong chance that nothing further will be done about your phone. When it comes to individual theft it's not really taken seriously any more. It's the wrong way to go about things but lack of Garda funding and resources have made it this way. Please remember this when you're voting next year.

The Guards do treat this as real crime however they could spend dozens of man hours on trying to catch the scum responsible only for them to walk free when it gets to court, particularly if they have dozens of previous convictions.

The Gaurds are frustrated. They put in all the effort, do all the paperwork, turn up on their day off to give evidence in court to simply watch the person walk away a free man.

This is one example of why morale amongst the Gaurds is rock bottom.