Beware of Robbie Boland the conman (Robbie Lynch)

Just a hundred bucks to help him out. And he'll get it back whenever his tourmanager picks him up, blablabla...

And the pub owner doesn't know him from Adam? Maybe someone should ask him for some i.d., just in case it's a bloke using Robbie Boland as an alias. Is this lad Irish? How old is he?

Ask him for some ID? Of course, his ID card was in the stolen shoulderbag and his passport was kept at the tour manager's office...

Exactly !! Thats what I meant !!

Of course, I will continue to tell my children that lying is baaaad, and not the done thing, or how we get what we want...although thats not quite true - very often we get what we want by lying...shit, damn, sshh!! 'nuff said...

Oh well, I used to be the ex-drummer of the Dubliners ex-drummers band - has anybody got a gig for me - I am very good !!

By the way - even at my ripe old age ,I still find myself sleeping on strange barmans floors !!
I try to "con" myself a hotel room often - but those damn pub owners are just too bloody quick-clever - Geizig - whatever you wanna call it...what I mean is - it's very hard to get something from people when they really don't want to give it...unless you really are a con-man...and I am sure then that the old ladys silver is at danger more than a floor to sleep on or a fridge to be emptied...
Of course the story telling "Robbies" of this world might ruin it for any more genuine/needy cases...but hell, who says you have to stop being nice and friendly and generous just because one guy takes advantage onetime...

afterall...the next person may not...and being generous - helpful - freindly is about us and not them...isn't it ?

jaaaaaaaaamie

When I have helped people in need and doubted the truth from the beginning, I then made a conscious decision to help at that risk...i've done this lots of times...i.e. lent someone money but in my head wrote it off as soon as I decided to give it...that way I've never really been angry or felt used by such people. Sometimes their lying does actually stem from need and that I sympathise with - those people sometimes need the most help.

Ladies and gentlemen.

We got him.

I am the pub manager of O'Kellys Irish Pub in Freiburg. About a week and a half ago, Robbie showed up and pulled his now well-worn "my stuff was stolen" act on us. We helped him through the week, lending him a bit of food and money. He eventually did a gig for us with a borrowed guitar. On the day he was the leave to "rejoin his band on a tour of Belgium" he disappeared with the borrowed guitar and a few of my musical knick knacks as well.

By sheer coincidence, about three days later, one of our regulars returned from Stuttgart with the quite odd claim that he had seen Robbie in one of the city's Irish Pubs. We got on the phone and after a little digging around, found that, indeed, Robbie was now cruising the Stuttgart scene using the same story and tactics. We alerted the Stuttgart pubs as to his actions here in Freiburg and we immediately all suspected the same thing: that he's probably been pulling this crap for a long time in numerous cities.

The fellow whose guitar Robbie had taken then went and reported it as stolen, and, if I can believe what I am now hearing from Stuttgart, Robbie was arrested last night. More I don't yet know. But, I'm quite glad to have helped put a stop to his exploitation of Irish good-will. If you know of any other "crimes" he is reportedly responsible for, you'd perhaps do well to ring up the Stuttgart police station now.

Dustin Gould

Huzzah! Glad to hear it, Dustin. Thanks for reporting.



Perfect, now would be the perfect time to write the three words I so want to see. The guy's a thief. Or are you going to justify that away as well?

woof.

Oops!

Even though I personally disliked his way of continuously exploiting other peoples' good faith and helpfulness, I would not have expected that he really goes that far. Hence, even though being criticized by a few people for initially spreading this warning, I now more than ever feel it was right to do so. At least, it will help the guy from Freiburg to recover his guitar. And as a musician, there is one thing I really hate: instrument theft.

Robbing a mans guitar is a hanging offence. Low E from a beech tree. You don't steal a mans lady. Thanks for posting this. Sorry OP, you were right.

Abso-fuckin-lutely! My blood runs cold to think of my beloved Roberta being kidnapped and taken from me.

I ran into this southern tosser who claimed he was a musician of some sort...

You can't tapdance with broken legs, Dafydd.

@ Dafydd: And what did you experience?

To the naive and stupid,

Anyone who was unable to see the true nature of that slimy little conman from the minute he walked in the door needed they wake up call they more than likely got , and you have noone to blame but your selves, so for all you high and mighty twats celebrating his arrest " hooray we got him " you should be locked away with him your supreme idiocy should be a crime .

And that's your introductory post? Welcome to Toytown Germany, you sound like you'll be an asset.

There's some truth in what you're saying. As I believe too if you put yourself out there to be had, why be so bitter about it. There's that old adage "never trust a stranger" and I would even go as far as saying never even trust some of the peeps you think you know. Unfortunately, that's life and that's just the way it is!!!

sounds like robbie b has a like-minded "friend" in the perfume city.

I don't understand that post at all. So is sir realist saying that Boland is the bad guy or that the people that thought he wasn't a bad guy were the bad guys? Or are the bad guys the people that were celebrating that Boland is a bad guy? Because if he's bad, shouldn't it be good that people who thought he was bad were right? Or is it bad that some people thought he was good because he was bad? *scratches head, pondering the complex nature of alternate IDs*

I care to disagree - faith in human nature to a certain extent is a necessity (at least for me). Otherwise, what a supremely depressing state of affairs it would be.

Reminds me of...

100% agreed. I do not see the point of some postings that obviously tend to lay the blame for others' misconducts on those people who, for whatever reason, do not expect the worst from everybody else right from the start. I dare to say that life is not as simple as that, otherwise the planet would be packed with suspicious and cynical hedonists who do not give a s*** about anybody else. There are arleady enough of those folk, and silly excuses for crooked behaviour and that certain "serves you right" attitude are surely not the way to change that to the better. Of course we should not trust the cat to keep the cream, but some cats come disguised as a guinea pig. So why not call a crook a crook?

I agree with you as well... there has to be a basic trust n others for society to even function.

@fjell_strom: Is his name really Robbie Boland and is he really the Riverdance bloke he claimed to be, did any of that emerge when he was detained?

Quite right, however the narcissist / con man will take advantage of that at every opportunity. They're quite ill, actually.

Yeah, so one conman takes advantage of it, and thousands of others, honest people, don't.

Of course you take a risk by trusting strangers, and of course you should be careful about some things (not get in a car with them and so), but you can hardly say it is the pub owners' fault for getting screwed over like this.

I do not want to see the day where everyone distrusts everyone, what a horrible place would the world be...

The problem with conmen like this is, they really screw things up for honest people who may really have been in the situation and then no one believes them because they don't want to fall for the same lie again. They sow distrust. And others have to reap the "fruit".

I don't blame the pub owner. Anyone can be conned by a fake personality and a few easy lies. These people are ill in that they have a personality disorder. They can't help themselves.

So if I lie to people and defraud them of money/board/food I am not a criminal but mentally ill and they should realize that? If they don't it's their problem not mine?
Like gg, I don't get it.

@punchbear: I suppose this tells it all... Musician Robbie Boland - Riverdance message board. Seems to be quite a long history.

I am sure that (personalty disorder) is the case for some, but not all. I do believe that some could help themselves, they just enjoy being parasites.

And even if it is a personality disorder, by the way, the way to help themselves would be to get help! Or ask for help. Get treatment and thus be able to lead a normal life.

Well I'm no psychologist but I've done some reading on sociopaths, narcissists, pathological liars and various personality disorders. I can't diagnose someone I haven't met, nobody can, but I'm willing to bet that this guy is one or a combination of the above. They don't seek help because they are convinced the rest of the world is disordered, not them. I mean, come on: this guy makes his way through life by lying. Gotta ask yourself: is this normal?

So does he and everyone moans about it:

You're not the first one to suggest that Bush has a screw or two loose!

I honestly suppose that most would be able to help themselves, but why should they do as long as it is comfy enough to exploit others? And even for those few who might suffer from some personality disorder, to become widle known for their strange habits or even to get removed from circulation will most probably be the forst step towards a fundametal change.

This is why the con man always moves from town to town, city to city. By the time people are on to their game, they've skipped town. Very slippery, very cunning, not easy to spot because they're always so charming.

@ silty1: This is exactly the reason why I started this thread.

And I'm glad for you that he's been nabbed. Any update btw? Hope they haven't released him on bail...

Exactly, and that is the point where they can be held reliable for their actions, and it cannot just be blamed on a personality disorder.

And no, lying and stealing your way through life is not normal, but doesn't mean it is a personality disorder! It also does not mean that the person is not consciously doing it.

They do it, because they can. They get by. They don't get caught. Why work for something if you can just steal it or lie to get it and do not have the conscience to make you feel bad for living this way?

From my personal experience, that was exactly the case with the guy in question: He knew dead-on how much and what he was able to get from a particular vis-à-vis -- and that was precisely what he asked for and what he took then.

To me it seams that there are a few namby pambys out there who would like to believe that they should have faith in every person out there as a basic principle
, unfortunatly its a sad fact that this is not a viable option as some amongst this group will testify there are people out there who will just exploit whoever they can for what ever they can get , whether or not this comes from some sort of mental dissorder or from pure inconcern for the damage they leave behind or not
is really not the issue at this point ( and yes i am completly that a lot ofmental health cases should be trerated as health issues rather than crimanal ones , at least at first anyway ) the fact still remains that an obvious crook such as this man can walk in to a bar and RECITE the story that he has been giving and you are unable to call him out on it then people will continue to operate in this manner. some times your you will turn someone away who needs help , but the truly genuine people will have friends or family they can turn to i mean really in this age of email text messages and western union chances are that if you are relying on someone you have never met to keep you in beer and food for a week then you have probably f u c k e d over everyone else .

sorry mariposadid not see your post till after i wrote mine , oh and i am the drummer from pearl jam. can i have some beer and a place to stay

I don't know where to start responding.

Do I look like a pub to you? Or a pub owner for that matter?

is that you matt? i love that song you did in attack of the killer tomatoes.

no messing.

@mariposa,
i think we all want to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but

even if you suspect something is not right with someone, you still give them the benefit of the doubt because you can't imagine that their quirks and problems are anything but idiosyncracies. It's when you start to do a bit of research and discover that their traits - the things they talk about, the stories they tell, just the way they are - have a recognisable pattern, and that the pattern actually has a name (bipolar, histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, pathological liar, etc) you realise they're actually disordered. my recent experience, anyway.

Well said, silty1. This seems to be the reason why those folk are able to muddle through fo quite a long time.

In the majority of cases, however, I would not call the traits somewhat "disordered". Technically speaking, tossers like the one in question simply found that one can make life an endless holiday at others' expenses. In my opinion, this demands a very sober-minded and cold-blooded decision rather than a state of mental disorder. You can tell a patologic liar from a person who deliberately hoaxes others with a well thought-out sob-story in order to exploit their good will, can't you? Hence, I would tend to call such behaviour deliberately fraudulent and crooked rather than disordered -- just like "a certain kind of physical disorder" might not be a good excuse when the police stop you on your way home in the wrong lane after 12 pints in the pub.

Hey there,

Robbie Boland arrived in Saarland,

A few days ago a guy named Robbie Boland came into our Pub in Homburg near Saarbrücken and told his story. My Dad is one of the kindest guys I know, so he checked him into a Hotel.
The next day we found out, that he had made Phonecalls for about 160€ at night (0900 numbers, if you know what I mean)

Now he wants to do a gig tonight and he claims that he'll get the money via Western Union or something and left "his" guitar here.
Fortunately we found this site...

P.S.: He has already made friends with a Martin Backpacker Guitar, and wants to play the gig with it...
And he drank stuff for at least another 100 € (Killbeggan, Guinness, Lager)
For all the people that said he was harmless, I don't see us getting the money back, we already informed the police, and the Hotel he's in at the moment.

Cheers,
A pissed off son of a Pub Owner.

Call the cops in while he's playing tonight. Wait for him to arrive so that there are no games being played. The accused is on the premises, with a possibly stolen guitar, and you wish to file theft and fraud charges for the consumables and phone usage.

woof.

Strongly supported, BadDoggie! It seems like he starts to overdo it a bit and the whole story is getting more and more serious. Removing him from circulation might save a few other people, who did not have the dubious pleasure to meet that guy in person so far, from some unpleasant experiences -- and it might teach him the lesson he obviously needs urgently.

Best have some plainclothes cops at hand for a friendly reception tonight, and make sure they will not release him on bail before everything is sorted out properly (should not be a problem as he obviously is without permanent home, documents, etc.) I suppose "his" guitar is the one he stole from the guy in Freiburg.

BTW, it might be a good moment for the following hint: Here in Nuremberg he played an acoustic Fenix (with heavily worn-out strings) equipped with a PU system, quite a few abalone inlays and that Gibson copy headstock Fenix used a few years ago. Does anybody miss such an instrument since having encountered Mr. Boland? Might be a good idea to give the cops in Saarbrücken a ring...

Lets just hope that con man (should be clear that he is one -- still any doubts, anybody?) will not be able to save his bacon again and continue on his tour, or, even worse, start anew under another name.

@ PlanxtyPub: Please let us know how the story continued.

I would love seeing something like that happen, but I doubt that my Father will do it that way.
We are a family with five children, and not in the best financial situation, the pure thought of someone so coldhearted to do something like that makes me sick.

P.S.:

@ hilu, we posted at the same time, of course I will let you know how the story continiues.

And another thing is, that my Father informed the Hotel he resides in, so if someone confronted him with it he may not show up at all

This is exactly what pisses me off as well: Folk like him always pick out kind-hearted people who are not too well-off.

Try to convince your father that this really is an issue for the autorities -- at least for the sake of everybody else who might run into Boland if you let him leave with nothing else but a few curses or some good advice thrown at his face. He will give a shit ayway.

Good idea might be to send the police directly to the hotel before he has the chance to weasel out...