The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
Posted on 11/19/2011 12:02:23 PM PST by Feline_AIDS
A friend of mine had her apartment burglarized a few days ago. The thief picked up a subwoofer with a glass-like finish from the floor, leaving visible fingerprints. He also left a pen printed with the words "Welcome Home." Seems like he was startled by something and left in a hurry, didn't take everything he wanted.
He still made off with about $2000 worth of electronics. The door was locked back when he left.
The police stooge showed up almost an hour after she called; my friend hadn't touched anything. The stooge they sent out examined the glass for fingerprints and found them. He called a supervisor to tell about the prints. The conversation was audible because his phone volume was turned way up. The supervisor was discouraging him, asking him leading questions about the quality of the prints. The stooge said he thought they'd be usable, but would call the supervisor back. Outside.
When he comes back, they've decided not to dust for fingerprints, even though the thief has left usable ones behind. I'd had to leave by that point, or else I would have called BS.
Now here's what gets me. The pen said "Welcome Home." Does that not sound like a prison ministry sort of thing? Maybe it's not. But prisoners are the one block of the population whose fingerprints are absolutely recorded. Then pen might have a fingerprint on it, too. The stooge took the pen with him.
What should she do? I guess it's too late to dust the subwoofer, but is there a chance that she could get them to do something with the pen?
Another question: It seems the laptop that was stolen has popped up on craigslist. It might not be the same one, and there's no picture to confirm it, but it's an expensive laptop going for a cut-rate price, and it's suspicious that that very model laptop would show up the day after the burglary. Especially considering it's the only one like it listed for weeks. Any ideas?
Call the shift supervisor and complain, and demand they send somebody over to lift the prints.
Had the same thing happen to a friend, police told her if the items show up they might catch the burglar. Police are useless, she went out to pawn shops and found a lot of her things. She was able to retrieve some items but without police help whatsoever.
THEN call the mayor and your city councilman. Anybody in an elected position that you know, get on them (what are we paying taxes for, etc. etc.)
This is a case of the squeaky wheel.
And they can still get good prints off the glass if you haven't touched it. Leave it alone.
Fingerprinting is expensive in terms of time to capture and analyze the latents. Sure, on TV they take prints and get a match by the second commercial break, but reality is a little different.
Nobody hurt, relatively small amount stolen, cops not interested. I’ve been there. In fact I’ve had several instances where the cops did not care to do too much investigation.
If someone were hurt or a gun stolen, you’d see more interest.
For teh Craigslist, call, get to see the laptop, get the serial number. If you have the serial number written down, hand it to the seller as you pick up the laptop and ask him to read it off!
Pretend to be interested in the laptop and arrange to meet the guy somewhere and examine the computer. If it’s the same one... well I dunno. Get his picture somehow and ask for a name when you meet him.
Maybe the Keystone cops could do SOMETHING with a picture and a name (or alias)??
Take the laptop and tell him you know its stolen and the owner is your friend.
It’s quite possible the local TV stations have “action lines” or some such named service to root out fraud and bad service. Get one of those working on it and it’s likely the threat of public exposure will get some results.
Life ain’t a cop show where the forensics lab comes running to the scene of every burglary. In fact I suspect dusting for prints is pretty rare short of murder investigations.
Police are indeed useless. I had a credit card theft and the police didn’t do a thing. I know it was an employee at HP who did it because charges started showing up right after we made an online purchase through their home website and I found out the IP was in CA. Ironically, they bought several hundred dollars from Apple. Neither the police nor Apple would do anything. BTW, I will never be a customer of HP or Apple.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
Robbers frequently return a second time to get items they did not get the first time. They already know the house and the layout and where the stuff they want is. You should get an alarm and cameras. You can buy both and install them yourself for under $200 at COSTCO. Lowes has a good system also. Put the recorder where he can’t get it; the attic perhaps.
If you can’t get to it today buy a sign reading “ALARMED! 24 hour video surveillance.” Hang up a fake camera. You’ve probably got a week to 10 days.
As for the cops, they’re useless. They’re really in the revenue (ticketing) business; not crime. They only really investigate murders and then only if it’s somebody relatively important. This is why serial killers can knock off 10 hookers and nobody notices they’re all killed with the same MO.
check out the laptop, get the address and name, run the name and background with an identity search etc
You are lucky, an officer showed up.
Years ago when my home was broken into and a TV and VCR was taken all that happen was I got a package in the mail and a form to fill out. (This was back in the late 1980s when VCRs were fairly new and expensive).
As previous posters have noted, the police really are not going to do much. They collect data and if they happen to catch someone they will pin your crime on them and then it all gets plea bargained away.
You can complain as some FReepers suggest, but be prepared for retaliation. Parking and code enforcement may be to the letter all of a sudden, and the stop sign at the end of your block may get it's own individual patrol car sitting there to guard it from theft.
In the place I used to live, the official police position was that property crime was merely an insurance matter. They haven’t the least bit of interest in catching anybody. In fact, they prefer to take reports over the phone, rather than have to come to the crime site. Cops today are mostly unionized goons. Utterly worthless.
Three Wednesdays ago someone got into our building’s locked garage , broke our personal private garage lock and pulled the string out and released to lock manually. Our car was stolen and our garage was burglarized.
We discovered 7:30 the next morning. Called Oceanside PD non-emergency number. They took info over the phone and an officer was there in 45 minutes checking the scene and interviewing us. At about 8:45 an evidence technician came and took prints from several areas.
Last Tuesday we got a call. The car was found by parking enforcement in a neighborhood across the freeway on a little side street. The keys were in the car. Another evidence tech came and got me after taking prints, while a cop stayed at the scene.
5 personnel from O-side PD all performed courteously and professionally. And we got our car back.
Don't you dare touch their pensions.
Crime doesn't pay. Traffic violators do.
Last year or so mine and my wifes vans were broken into. It was the third or fourth time over the years. This time both passenger side windows busted out of our vehicles. Theives got nothing. Called police and they would not send anyone out. They took a statement from my wife ( who called the police ) over the phone and when it got to me I told them to pound sand. If they wouldn`t send anyone out it wasn`t doing me any good to give them a “statement”. I installed flood lights the following week that light up the driveway and the street in front of my house. Never a problem since...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.