I put out a post last week that bike had been stolen from an underground car park in Dublin while I was away. My neighbour rang to let me know that my bike had been stolen and I immediately called the guards.
Within 5 mins there were two squad cars on the scene. The guards patrolled on foot and in car for the next hour as the thieves had been seen pushing the bike down the street.
The entire time, I was kept well informed by the responding guard. They eventually called off the search but gave me some recommendations of where it could be stashed.
I got home after 3 hours after the theft and went patrolling the nearby flats. After about an hour of searching I found the bike stashed in one of the flats car park, still intact.
I decided to call the guards to have the bike recovered as I did not want to be chased out of the flats trying to take my own bike back. I hung back outside the flats covering the exit awaiting the guards arrival. Unfortunately this time they took 40 mins to come and in the mean time the thieves moved it again out a side entrance unbeknownst to me. The responding guards stayed on and searched for another hour with me, as well as another two guards until about midnight where they decided to call off the search again.
I decided it would be best to get up at dawn and continue the search. That I did, and I returned to where I had found the bike the night before and lo and behold it was back in the same spot. I rang the guards again but this time I waited with the bike, I wasn’t letting it leave my sight this time.
In fairness to the guards, they were back on scene within 10 mins of the call, they then called a tow truck and took the bike away for forensic investigation. I received the bike back from the forensic unit 48hours later.
I know we love to give out about the guards a lot here, but I can honestly say that they were nothing but extremely helpful, professional and kind in my dealings with them. I did not expect to have 6 guards wilfully patrolling the flats with me to try and find my bike at midnight on a Sunday.
Credit where credits due to An Garda Siochana and hopefully this is a sign that the force is beginning to take vehicle theft more seriously!