Just said goodnight to the local police at 1.30 am

Was going to bed about an hour ago and heard a key in the front door, thought it was our daughter but she doesn't live at home so would ring us if she was staying, so I looked through the peephole & saw some guy I never saw in my life before.

Waited till he was near the end of the driveway and opened the door to ask had he a problem, he mumbled something about the skip "no worry, it's not a problem", asked what he wanted with the skip in my drive he said "it's nothing to do with you I look in skip" so I let loose at him (verbally), waking everyone in my house up and a couple of neighbours.

He shouted back "I know your house where you live", other half said "Are you threatening us", he responded "Take it what way you like" and headed off down the road. So I phoned the police, son who notices everything was able to give a great description, brown jacket, short facial hair, eastern European accent, etc., stuff I wouldn't have noticed in a million years.

We headed down the road at a distance from the guy, police arrived within a couple of minutes, had a word with them and headed home where son realised there was a can of beer in my car and a door was partly open. So we called 911 again to say we had a bit of solid evidence. A short while later the police arrived, sealed my car (having locked it to save the battery!), arranged for crime scene specialists to come around in the morning and asked us a few questions.

As I was out on the street 2 different neighbours told me they had security problems in the last number of hours but they didn't call the police. If the police don't get this guy it won't be because they weren't on the ball quick enough. Fair dues to the local Gardai (they were from Dun Laoghaire & Dalkey).

If anyone's interested I'll update this thread as I get news.

Are you saying it was this guy who was in your car? What are the police doing now?

TreeTiger said:

Was going to bed about an hour ago and heard a key in the front door,

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This 'non national' had a key to your home or was drunk and trying his own keys in your door ?

A most disturbing story indeed. The notion that a stranger has actual keys to a home containing sleeping innocents is really scary .
Did he break into the car or did he have keys to it or was it left open unintentionally ?

Or had he already been inside your house and pinched the car keys?

Good luck with having him cuffed and stuffed.

Wahay, +1 for the citizens. I love hearing stories like this.

Sound like this (inset appropriate phrase of choice) was trying to hot wire your car, couldn't do it and decided to check to see if he could get into the house and swipe the keys.

Don't leave you car keys hanging up inside your front door people, it is what guys like this expect and prey on.

At least the gardai came promptly. We've had two incidents at home in recent weeks and despite repeated phone calls they never turned up.

In the first incident my wife came home after collecting the children from school to find a man drunk and abusive in the front garden. She quickly got the children inside the house but they were terrified. As she had to bring them out again to after school activities within the hour she phoned the gardai immediately. After nearly an hour and repeated calls (he was getting really abusive and banging on the front door) there was no sign of the gardai. Then he fell over and banged his head against a rock in the garden splitting it open. A neighbour saw this and phoned the ambulance. (He had also phoned the gardai earlier) They were there in five mins.

In the second incident there was a man going from door ro door begging. I was visiting elderly relatives of mine a few streets away when he came to their door and he demanded money. They gave him €2 and he said "Is that fxxxing all? Give me more." When they refused he said he'd "fxxxing" kill them. When I stepped forward and asked him to leave he said "What are you going to fxxxing do about it". I said I'd call the guards and he said "They won't fxxxing come".

About an hour later I was at home when he appeared on my doorstep. (He would have had no way of knowing I lived there) I didn't open the door and he kept knocking for nearly ten minutes. After he left my driveway I followed him in my car and noticed that he went randomly to houses and stayed at the doors roaring at often elderly neighbours for up to a quarter of an hour. I phone the gardai on my mobile but as he had predicted earlier they didn't come.

FredBloggs said:

he said "What are you going to fxxxing do about it". I said I'd call the guards and he said "They won't fxxxing come".

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He knows them well. You were lucky, TreeTiger. In general they won't come. They can usually be found, however, hiding behind a bush on a long straight stretch of road. As for catching robbers, muggers, violent attackers etc. - well, they just don't do that.

So we called 911 again

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Try 999 ??