So I called 999

carzony · 06-07-2013 05:12AM #1

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 · 06-07-2013 05:16AM

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 · 06-07-2013 05:19AM

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

06-07-2013 05:20AM

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 · 06-07-2013 05:24AM

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...

06-07-2013 05:30AM

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 · 06-07-2013 05:34AM

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 · 06-07-2013 05:56AM

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 · 06-07-2013 06:16AM

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.

06-07-2013 06:23AM

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.

06-07-2013 06:26AM

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 · 06-07-2013 06:57AM

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 · 06-07-2013 07:03AM

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] · 06-07-2013 07:07AM

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 · 06-07-2013 12:14PM

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 · 06-07-2013 12:15PM

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 · 06-07-2013 12:15PM

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 · 06-07-2013 12:35PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:22PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:24PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:28PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:33PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:35PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:46PM

They probably had a student house party to break up.

flas · 06-07-2013 01:47PM

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 · 06-07-2013 01:58PM

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 · 06-07-2013 02:00PM

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 · 06-07-2013 02:11PM

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 · 06-07-2013 02:13PM

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 · 06-07-2013 02:14PM

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 · 06-07-2013 02:15PM

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

So I called 999

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