quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Has anyone had a positive experience reporting a crime?

Sort of two out of three times.
Two out of three times someone was arrested and we got back some of the stuff that was stolen. Both times it was our efforts that lead to the arrests, not the sheriff’s. The second time, the deputy in charge of the “investigation” was the son of the sheriff. He seemed useless to me. Of course, he’s the current sheriff now after daddy retired.
My impression is stolen stuff low priority. For reference, $10,000; $35,000; and $40,000 of stuff.

Wow. When I was a B&E detective the first thing I found out was that only 12% of those crimes are ever solved. If someone handed me a case that was all wrapped up I’d be delighted

I recovered stolen stuff regularly. Most of the time, it could not be returned because no one claimed it. Or could victims ID their own stuff. Our bicycle auction gave out great deals whenever it was held.

Two cases I am familiar with went similarly to a1's with total disinterest from law enforcement despite everything handed to them on a platter.

A third case was a theft from our home while on vacation. We knew it must be the boyfriend of the house sitter (college age daughter of a friend). The police officer did what he could to apply pressure to both of them, but the jewelry was probably long gone before we even returned from the trip.

The bad experiences involved medium to large cities, the good experience was a small town.

Policing has a bad culture problem. It’s just not in the way the OP complains.

No one here wants cops to take third party complaints. No one. One, if the cops build a case, it’s unconstitutional and can’t be prosecuted. The second is no one here wants the OP or anyone else to report their guns as being stolen. What keeps him from doing so? Let’s say the OP hates cops so bad that he as a third party gets a serial number off of a picture I post and reports the gun stolen. The police actually take that report and enter the gun NCIC. I get pulled over and arrested for possessing my property that was a third party report. Yeah, the OP can be charged for filing a false report but it’s a misdemeanor and if the charges are out of state, he can’t he arrested unless he actually comes to that state and gets caught. Same thing with taking reports over the phone. The police should never do that. Too much opportunity for fraud. While the gun example is to extreme, it’s an example that everyone here can relate.

As to DOJ/Homeland, they will not take a fraud or theft case below $5 million. Right or wrong, they won’t.

As to the culture problems that exist with policing, most agencies are liability conscious first, with policing a distant second. And it kills me to see what it has become. We have created a culture of report takers, and not honest to goodness street cops. A good street cop doesn’t need detectives to make a drug arrest, nor do they need them to close a burglary. Most cops can’t (or won’t) do simple things such as attempt to lift latent fingerprints. Most cops don’t know how because they haven’t done it since the academy. This blows my mind in agencies that work 15-20 thefts per week.

As to the OP, the actual answer is for someone to work with the victim and if they wish to do so, obtain a power of attorney on their behalf. With that, the locals should take the report upon proof being shown of legal standing.

Policing has horrible problems right now, and we need to get back to being street cops.

quote:

With that, the locals should take the report upon proof being shown of legal standing.

The report was made when the burglary occurred. The issue isn't getting anybody to take the report, the issue is getting somebody to do something about it.

I will add that I spoke with another employee of the city who provided me with the police chief's email. I reached out to him and had a response within 20 minutes stating that a captain would be in touch. That has yet to happen, but I will update the thread should it.

This burglary occurred at a business, and although I'm not the owner I do have the authority from the owner to deal with this issue on his behalf. I've been helping him wind everything down, and have full access and control over the business property.

quote:

No one here wants cops to take third party complaints. No one.

I do want that. If a third party sees somebody breaking into my house, I'd like them to report that to the police, and I'd like the police to respond. Isn't that better than waiting for me to return, find everything already gone, and then taking a report directly from the involved party?

If somebody is reporting or providing information on a legitimate crime, why would we not want that? Who cares if it's a third party?

I think for once we do have an actual misunderstanding. Third party calls of crimes in progress should be answered and if possible suspects detained. However, no arrests/reports should take place without a legitimate victim.

Otherwise, your neighbor calls in your house being broken into. The cops show up and arrest the guy crawling through the window. Turns out it was your brother who you told to stop by and feed the cat but forgot his key. Your neighbor may or may not know that.

Third party calls for service should be just that. Unless the victim of the crime is society.

As far as no one doing anything about it. Could be a legitimate reason. Or it could be the rot of basic police work that plagues the profession.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
If somebody is reporting or providing information on a legitimate crime, why would we not want that? Who cares if it's a third party?

Um. This.

Jljones, to clarify, when I couldn’t get a response, it was either in situations where I was representing a client, or as a person who’s property was involved.

quote:

I reached out to him and had a response within 20 minutes stating that a captain would be in touch. That has yet to happen, but I will update the thread should it.

It has been 48 hours, and nobody has contacted us as of yet.

But in the meantime, I spent some downtime yesterday going through all of the photos in the e-mails. Criminals aren't always that smart, and although it appears they had their phone location shut off in most of the photos they slipped up on a few.

I can show which addresses (which we already knew about) had some photos taken, but I discovered yet another address that we didn't know about with some of the more expensive items. Those photos also show some of the home in the background.

How about a local neighborhood facebook community page. I suspect some action could be generated through some contacts that are part of that type of community.
We need cops and police forces. But not those kinds.

Good work on your taking the time to have some interest on behalf of the victim.

I hope it works out for you but the FBI and basically every other federal agency is useless as tits on a bull.

My nephew had his car stolen from his work parking lot. He made a report w/ the police.

My Nephew did the legwork to find and get it back. While they stole $400 cash out of the car, when he tracked it down, all of his tools were still in the trunk. $$$$

I think his perception of local LE response to this type of situation has been adjusted.

Sometimes I think these fail at the front desk. The ones that answer the phones or say, "Ok, fill out this report".

I had my camper stolen from a “ secured” storage facility and oddly enough none of the cameras caught anything.
It was found a couple of weeks later at a Walmart in Douglasville and had empty beer and coke cans in and a receipt from a return at that Walmart.
Walmart has more cameras than your bank, and the receipt is dated/time/register stamped. They did zero policing. Zero. No finger printing the cans, no looking at the video.
You have insurance. File for the damage and stolen items. Have a nice day.

quote:

You have insurance. File for the damage and stolen items. Have a nice day.

In this case these items were not insured, and the loss will impact the long term care needs of the person who owned them. That's why I'm taking it so personally.

^^^^^^^
And let’s face it, insurance always low balls you on value.

An F350 was stolen from my work place. The company has a GPS installed in all trucks. The local police were told exactly where the truck was parked. The police didn’t go looking for it until late that day but it was not in sight and the GPS had been killed.
Another stolen car was spotted by a coworker. He followed it to a home and called the police. The police told him not to follow and never checked on the stolen car.
Same coworker was witnessing a car break in. As he watched police car passed and refused to stop even though he was waved down and looked right at the coworker.
Another stolen truck was emptied along a small road. The police would not encourage the owner to clean up the mess.

I was able to put together a few names and addresses based on information I had, and was able to come up with an additional address from the EXIF data in some of the photos which were emailed to the potential buyer (which provided them to me).

I have the emails, and I have the text messages.

So I did a little door knocking yesterday. I ended up at the location where the items are/were. No answer there, but I made contact with a neighbor across the street. They were kind enough to inform their thieving neighbors after I left, which knew I was there, suspected why I was there, and were hiding inside out of sight.

After that I went to the next town over and made contact with the father in law of the person who was attempting to sell the items. He doesn't like the father of his grandchildren much and didn't seem opposed to the idea of him going to jail. He verified that everything I knew about him was correct, and called his daughter on speaker phone for the 3 of us to have a conversation. I made arrangements with her to stop by their home a bit later.

She wasn't very pleased with her boyfriend/husband. His version of the events were that he was a "reseller" who buys and sells items himself as well as sells items for others on commission. He "was contacted" by those in possession of the items to sell them on their behalf. Yes he had them to take photos, and yes he had tried to sell the items, but he did not possess them nor was he responsible for or know anything about a burglary.

He broke down a bit more as we spoke. The miscreants who wouldn't answer the door had sent him a text message threatening to kill him if he told anybody about them, and me should I show up again. And in another plot twist, he said he recognized me. I asked from where, and he stated he saw me at the home of the victim of this theft during an estate sale they had prior to him selling his farm.

What are the odds of that? The guy at an estate sale of the victim's home also happens to have a connection to the property stolen from the victim's business in another state. A burglary that occurred shortly after the estate sale.

He messaged me last night stating that he may show up at the police department this morning to turn in some of the items he has. I suppose we'll see.

While I applaud your initiative in this, it does get me a bit worried. Are you at least armed while doing this investigating in-person and becoming exposed to these shady assholes? Does any of this open you up to liability? I'm certainly seeing risk to you, personally.

I've been involved with several businesses, including repossession and other asset recovery. Speaking with shady assholes doesn't bother me.

I'm well protected, including an additional person with me, lots of insurance, and the knowledge to know how to walk the line in order to remain well within legality.

He's now offering to turn some of the items over directly to me. Should that occur later today, I will go with the police.