Disorganised criminals and Russian-speaking mafias: Why car thefts are surging in Ireland

When Sonia Harris went to a Dublin city gym one afternoon, the experience quickly took a sinister turn.

“I ran around the corner to Townsend Street and the car was gone,” she says. “The car wasn’t close enough that you could just use the key to find it. So he must have seen me parking it and then watched me going into the gym and using the locker.” “It all went on for about 18 months and it was just one of these nightmare scenarios,” she said, though she never saw the suspect again.

A different trend has emerged more recently, which gardaí say involves sophisticated gangs investing in technology that enables them to hijack a car fob inside a target’s home. The signal from the fob is activated and amplified, which enables a criminal to open the vehicle and drive away. The hand-held amplifier devices, available online for between €7,000 and €9,000, can be used by someone outside a house to activate a fob the owner believed was safe inside.

“Once they start the car and drive it off, they can’t stop it and start it again,” said one source. “So they are driving to a particular location and parking the car, maybe on the side of a road or in a supermarket car park. They keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not located through any tracker in the vehicle. And once it’s not found after about 48 hours, they’ll arrange for it to be collected. But they’ll never drive it straight to one of their chop shops.

Many of those identified as running these enterprises are members of Lithuanian gangs, with garda sources saying other Russian speakers – including some Georgians – are also involved. They appear to have extensive contacts abroad, with as many as one in five vehicles stolen – up to 1,000 at last year’s pace – suspected of ending up in chop shops and their parts exported.

Lithuania For-You

Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Philip Nolan v Science Foundation Ireland: The dispute that has rocked Ireland’s science communityCase likely to hinge on issue of whether fair procedures were applied when board of science funding body summarily dismissed director general
Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »

Horse Racing Ireland 'shocked and appalled' at abuses exposed in Ireland's only horse abattiorAgriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said ‘no stone will be left unturned in making sure the full rigours of the law are applied’.
Source: The42_ie - 🏆 5. / 86 Read more »

Northern Ireland thrashed by Spain, while Portugal slip up ahead of Ireland friendlyRoberto Martinez’s Portuguese fell 2-1 at home to Croatia and will host John O’Shea’s side on Tuesday.
Source: The42_ie - 🏆 5. / 86 Read more »

Darragh Ó Sé: Derry look loose, cranky and disorganised - the situation seems to be beyond fixingMickey Harte’s players keep making the same silly mistakes and now they’ve lost their discipline into the bargain – I don’t see any way of them rescuing this for an All-Ireland push
Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »

Skin Cancer Is The Most Common Cancer In IrelandSkin Cancer Is The Most Common Cancer In Ireland - Here's Why Skin Cancer Is The Most Common Cancer In Ireland - Here's Why
Source: stellarmagazine - 🏆 25. / 51 Read more »

Your work questions answered: I was appointed to a new role and sent back to my old one within daysThis ‘strikes me as being very disorganised, and not a very good example’ of workplace communications
Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »