A Car, A Pipe Bomb and CSI Drumcondra.

Friday night after our late return from the pub, I checked my emails and of course had a quick look at my Facebook Page. I got a bit of a shock when I saw the post  No. 2 Daughter had on her wall.

No 2 Daughter

I've had a bad day involving a missing car, a pipe bomb and CSI Drumcondra. Long story short,  I had to take the bus home.

 ·  · 14 October at 19:58.

While I'm not a person who panics, I will have to admit to momentary alarm.  My daughter and pipe bombs? In Dublin? But using my brain, she was able to type so there can't have been too much harm done. I would have to wait until the morning to ring her and get the full story. Having had a stressful day she wouldn't appreciate a late call from an anxious Mammy, I phoned her to see what the story was and what had happened to poor old J-Lo.

J-Lo is No.4 daughter's car. She bought her when she was just 17, the legal age to learn to drive in Ireland. We live in a small village so No.4, unlike her sisters, was determined to get about under her own steam. She worked part-time, at weekends and during the summer, as a lifeguard. Unusually for her, she saved all her money, so when my work colleague decided to sell her Ford Ka at the right price, No.4 Daughter was in there like a shot. She named her new car Belinda but her friends soon renamed her (not it, her car was never an it).  Belinda became J-Lo, No 4's friends said she had to be called J-Lo because of her big bum and has been part of our family for seven years.

No. 2 Daughter has been driving J-Lo recently as No.4 Daughter's driving license had expired while she was living in France and she is waiting for her new one to arrive. They share a flat in Dublin and have been driving the car up and down rather than taking the bus every weekend. They have been able to find a free parking space for her in the back streets near their flat.

 So less of the back story, back to the pipe bomb! No.2 Daughter had just lugged her sister's dirty laundry to the car. She was coming home for the weekend. Her sister was staying in Dublin but planned on having clean laundry on Monday!!

Arriving at the place she had last parked the car, she discovered it was missing. She rang the gardai (police) to report it stolen. They told her they were the ones that had "stolen" it.

A jeep, belonging to a criminal, newly released from jail, had been parked in front of her car. Someone had placed a pipe bomb in the jeep and blown it up! The gardai removed No. 4 daughters car for forensic testing and would release it to her sometime the following week. This is the link to the newspaper report of the incident.

range-rover-targetted-as-families-rocked-by-third-pipebomb-blast-2904768.html

In spite of several phone calls to the garage where their car had been taken the girls could get no information on the extent of the damage to their car. If it was badly damaged it would be a big loss as they are both now students and would be unable to replace it. J-Lo is a teenager and the insurance would not pay enough to replace her.

The following Tuesday No.2 Daughter got word that the car was being released. She got to the garage to find the windows had been shattered. There was powder all over the inside of the car where it had been dusted for fingerprints. She had to drive it from the garage  in this condition as they would not allow the glass repair guy work on it on the premises.

The repair guy told her that the glass, in all probability, had been broken by the gardai. According to him they notorious for doing it. It made sense. They had the registration number. One quick look at the records and they could have identified the owner. She was just around the corner. A phone call and five minutes later she would have been there. It was easier to break the glass and haul it away.

However, there is no point in growling, the girls are ok, J-Lo lives for another day and boy, does No.2 Daughter have a tale to tell. She can dine out on this story for a while......and so can I :-)))