A German couple visiting Ireland for a camping trip had their car and all of their belongings stolen from a car park in Dublin Sebastian Smulders (33) and his girlfriend Lena Wiess (24) had arrived in Dublin last Tuesday, on the ferry from Liverpool, and parked their car on Sean McDermott Street in the north inner city.
Sebastian spoke to The Pat Kenny Show this morning and said: “We followed the parking signs and we found a place pretty near to O’Connell Street. It looked really nice; it was in front of a church so we didn’t really think something bad. We parked and went into the city.”
However, as reported in this morning's Evening Herald, when they returned to the car park at roughly 11pm they found that their car was gone, there was broken glass strewn on the ground and all that remained of their belongings – including their passports and cameras – was some clothes belonging to Sebastian.
“When we came back that night our car was gone, some of our stuff was ripped out and spread over the place. We didn’t really know what to do, we were kind of shocked and panicked.”
“I didn’t believe it that it was really gone. Everything was in the car because we were on a camping trip. All the clothes of Lena, they took everything.”
Sebastian’s mobile phone had no battery power left and he asked passersby for help – eventually one man stopped and called the gardaí.
Despite the experience, Sebastian said he and Lena have not allowed it colour their view of Dublin or Ireland.
“Honestly I must say, yes at first I really wanted to get out of Dublin because I couldn’t walk around the city with a good feeling but I must say ... everybody was so nice to us and helped us so much, starting from the guy who called the garda ... and we had so many nice people here,” he said.
Offers of help have come in from all over for the pair. A colleague of Lena’s is in a relationship with an Irish man and the man’s sister offered the pair the use of a house to stay in for the duration of their stay – an offer the pair took. “(She) gave us her house for a whole week ... without knowing us. From that point on we still love Ireland,” Sebastian said.
“We won’t let that negative thing let us have the wrong picture of Ireland. It can happen anywhere.”
