{"id":242686,"date":"2026-01-13T18:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:24:09","slug":"deputy-lord-mayor-of-dublin-says-family-absolutely-terrified-after-car-theft-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242686\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin says family \u2018absolutely terrified\u2019 after car theft \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin<\/a> has said he and his family were \u201cabsolutely terrified\u201d when a group of males stole vehicles from their Cabra home over the weekend.<\/p>\n

John Stephens, a Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> councillor, said his wife and daughter , were terrorised by males attempting to steal their cars from their driveway in the early hours of last Saturday.<\/p>\n

At about 5.30am, Mr Stephens\u2019s wife and daughter were woken by banging and shouting outside their home in Cabra. They phoned him while he was working a night shift at the Mater Hospital.<\/p>\n

He told them to phone the garda\u00ed straight away and to stay inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was utterly shocking for us all. I had to listen on the phone to the turmoil which was unfolding, unable to do anything, knowing I could do very little. I left work as quickly as I could to get to them, not knowing what I was going to find when I got there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround three young men, maybe more, began physically dragging my wife\u2019s 10-year-old car out of the way and out of the drive while hitting it off a vehicle belonging to one of our neighbours. My wife\u2019s car was badly damaged and that of our neighbour\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought the men were going to attempt to get into the house,\u201d he said. The males then targeted his 22-year-old daughter\u2019s car, smashing the windows and forcing the boot and doors open while using a crowbar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey then got in and drove off at speed \u2013 all of which my wife and daughter witnessed as they looked on from the house. To say they were absolutely terrified is an understatement. My wife and daughter are still terrified and it\u2019s several days later.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his daughter\u2019s car was relatively new and had a built-in tracker.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could see from her mobile phone app that her car was being driven towards Blanchardstown where it was abandoned. Everything inside the car was taken and the car was damaged beyond belief. It is probably going to be written off, while my wife\u2019s car is in a terrible mess too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The councillor said his daughter is \u201cdistraught\u201d and feels \u201cviolated\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Stephens said garda\u00ed dealt with the incident as quickly as they could, he said, adding that they are investigating the incident.<\/p>\n

Mr Stephens said he has been liaising with Garda management for several months over the urgent need for more officers in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlanchardstown and Cabra has the fastest growing population in the country and not enough garda\u00ed. I\u2019ve been told by Garda management that another 25 officers are needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CCTV, lighting and further security measures are to be placed around the deputy Lord Mayor\u2019s home this week. Councillors have a \u20ac2,500 security allowance due to fears of intimidation and harassment.<\/p>\n

The allowance for local authority members is expected to rise to \u20ac10,000 under reforms agreed by the Department of Local Government. <\/p>\n

Measures considered under the security allowance include intruder alarms, fixed panic buttons and CCTV cameras.<\/p>\n

In a statement, garda\u00ed said they responded to an incident involving criminal damage and the theft of a car from a residential premises in Cabra, Dublin 7, early on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe car was later recovered and investigations are currently ongoing,\u201d garda\u00ed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin has said he and his family were \u201cabsolutely terrified\u201d when a group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,615,895,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-242686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-dublin","tag-fianna-fail","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}