# File a police report or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087 "2016-01-13T23:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/21 "2016-01-14T11:58:34Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am not sure what you are getting at but officers and detectives almost always have much more serious “crimes” to work on. This is what I was responding to. None of the below is true. It will just irritate the people the people that take the call or, in the best case, result in some interoffice humor. There is even one better than that. You could become internet famous if you really pressed the issue and it got picked as an absurdity on Facebook or [Fark.com](http://Fark.com). I don’t know if that response was serious or not but I can promise you that the FBI doesn’t track cases of missing used flippers in gym locker rooms. Sorry, Shags, I didn’t know you were with the FBI. I’m speaking from my experience with local police, who are often interested in knowing what’s going on in their community. But I do wish you’d read my posts; no one said anything about demanding the police investigate petty theft, of swim fins or anything else. Not me, not the OP. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/22 "2016-01-14T13:06:42Z")
It’s a small matter. Your oversight. An items you can, and have ,easily replaced. You don’t actually know that someone took them, only that they are no longer where you believe you left them. Police services costs are constantly rising, they cannot hope to retrieve your misplaced items. Let them spend your tax dollars actually making a difference and focus their resources on the things they know need attention. Let it go. Move on. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/23 "2016-01-14T13:43:22Z")
You’re considering reporting an item you lost as stolen. That’s not only a waste of police resources, it’s the very height of delusion. > [@phall0106](#): > > My rationale is that any reasonable person who finds something out of the ordinary in a place of business should turn it into the office, not just have a “finders keepers” mentality. You can’t hold strangers accountable to the “reasonable person” standard without holding yourself to the same. No reasonable person expects that an item left in an open, public place would be recoverable hours/days later. If the item had been taken from a locked locker, that would be theft. You’re just being ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/24 "2016-01-14T14:22:27Z")
While you’re at it, file a report for those lost socks that didn’t make it out of the dryer. Over time they’re worth more than those fins. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/25 "2016-01-14T16:59:53Z")
I’ve been hanging around the Dope for quite some time–my account says December 2003 (I’m sure it’s been longer than that though), and I’ve read millions of threads and responses, and turned to those same Dopers several times in the past dozen plus years to garner their thoughts and opinions. I must say, the amount of snark in this thread surprises me. (Although I know it probably shouldn’t.) To me, it wasn’t the value of what had been stolen/gone missing or even if they item would ever be located, but the ethical question behind it–should a crime be reported? Perhaps I should have been very specific in my original post, and that I obviously wasn’t is my error. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/26 "2016-01-14T17:14:30Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > I’ve been hanging around the Dope for quite some time–my account says December 2003 (I’m sure it’s been longer than that though), and I’ve read millions of threads and responses, and turned to those same Dopers several times in the past dozen plus years to garner their thoughts and opinions. I must say, the amount of snark in this thread surprises me. (Although I know it probably shouldn’t.) > > To me, it wasn’t the value of what had been stolen/gone missing or even if they item would ever be located, but the ethical question behind it–should a crime be reported? Perhaps I should have been very specific in my original post, and that I obviously wasn’t is my error. “When someone says it’s not the money, but the principle of the thing, it’s the money.” – [Kin Hubbard](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kin_Hubbard) But then again, “A witty saying proves nothing.” – Voltaire Pragmatically speaking, how well do you believe your attempt at a police report would be received? If this is a theft, it’s the most trivial kind – perhaps not stolen at all, and if so of ridiculously low monetary value. The police do nothing out of principle. To secure any law enforcement interest, It has to involve loss of, or harm to, human life or valuable property. If you get any response at all, it’ll be filed at the bottom of the compost heap for all eternity. And almost certainly not figure into any metrics. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/27 "2016-01-14T17:20:18Z")
You don’t KNOW a crime has been committed. All you know is that your fins are missing. You left them behind in error. It’s equally plausible that they were picked up in error. Or put in the trash by custodial staff. Or they may be in the lost and found bin which nobody wants to dig through. Or, perhaps check with the pool staff. More often than not, they have sundry gear left behind by patrons which then becomes public property and is loaned to people who forgot theirs. Having said that, they were probably taken because they looked abandoned. Not exactly a great train robbery. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/28 "2016-01-14T17:50:58Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > You don’t KNOW a crime has been committed. All you know is that your fins are missing. You left them behind in error. It’s equally plausible that they were picked up in error. Or put in the trash by custodial staff. Or they may be in the lost and found bin which nobody wants to dig through. Or, perhaps check with the pool staff. More often than not, they have sundry gear left behind by patrons which then becomes public property and is loaned to people who forgot theirs. > > Having said that, they were probably taken because they looked abandoned. Not exactly a great train robbery. This, exactly. You are using a public space, you are responsible for keeping an eye on your stuff. They weren’t taken from the side of the pool while you swam. You left them in the locker room. And they are pretty darned inexpensive. I’m surprised the snark surprises you, because the idea of wasting law enforcement resources over your screw-up and such a minimal loss is ridiculous. And while you might want to tell the mgmt you left your fins in case they get turned in, since you don’t know what happened, it would be unfair to do anything to suggest the facility has a theft problem. If your gym’s locker room is anything like mine, I could imagine some later patron being pissed at someone having left their crap lying around, and tossed them in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/29 "2016-01-14T17:53:24Z")
I bet the janitors threw them in the trash, we had a locker room policy that was in your locker or in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/30 "2016-01-14T19:48:12Z")
I’ve left a few things behind at the gym, and some of them have been in the lost and found. I left my rescue inhaler behind and someone did turn it in, but because it was medicine I’m sure it was tossed. I doubt they were stolen. Like others have said, the fins probably got tossed or misplaced. Just be a bit more careful next time. It happens. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/31 "2016-01-14T21:15:28Z")
Just last month my sister called to say that someone had stolen a few of the solar powered candy canes that lined her walkway. She lives in a very nice neighborhood, and was upset that someone had come onto her property (if only by a few feet). I jokingly told her to call the local police department - she took me seriously, and called. They actually sent out a squad car to take a report! The police officer told her that he would keep his eyes open for the missing candy canes (perhaps they had been thrown onto someone else’s lawn). I was absolutely stunned by this - I can’t even get the police where I live to take me seriously when I report the stolen cars and drug dealing outside my house. TL/DR: perhaps the OP lives where my sister does! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/32 "2016-01-14T21:28:07Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > I’ve been going to a pool at a gym for several months now to help my arthritic knees and I use short fins to help my range of motion while in the water. (Not that it matters, but [these are the fins](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TQ6OMU).) The gym has been busier than usual, with everyone’s New Year’s Resolutions, and when I finished my laps on Monday, the locker room was quite busy, so I sat my fins on the floor, somewhat under the bench so I could get dressed. Well, I left and forgot them. > > No one has turned them in three days later, so they’re gone. > > I’ve been considering filing a police report. My rationale is that any reasonable person who finds something out of the ordinary in a place of business should turn it into the office, not just have a “finders keepers” mentality. If they were left in the parking lot, I could possibly understand (but not agree with) the “finders keepers” mentality. They aren’t yours, so leave them alone, or turn them in to the office. How is walking out of the gym with property that doesn’t belong to whomever took the fins any different than walking out of a grocery store with something that doesn’t belong to them? > > There’s a part of me that feels conflicted to take the time of an officer to file a report when he/she could be on a “real” call. Yet, the other part of me believes a crime, however minor, has been committed and that it should be reported. Do I think they’ll find whomever did this? No, I don’t, but I also think the gym should be on official alert that there is theft going on in their place of business. There’s also the concern that petty theft tends to be an under-reported crime and that skews factual crime reports. (Please don’t make me search to verify that…I recall reading it in a text book when I was taking a criminology class in college years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still held though.) > > So, file a report or not? > > Edited to add that I ordered another pair and Amazon will deliver them on Friday, so I can swim again. I would report it, the police may already had some complaints and your report will be another part of the Jig-saw. Our local police were receiving complaints about people breaking into cars, one night there was a knock at the door, it was the police to tell us they had caught a couple lads breaking into my daughters car. They had used the reports to work out the best time and place to catch them. So yes report it ---
**Author:** ![Leoj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/58956e/32.png) [@Leoj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leoj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/33 "2016-01-15T00:53:45Z")
Anyone else reminded of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7acD4q0lp0)? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/34 "2016-01-15T06:06:35Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > While you’re at it, file a report for those lost socks that didn’t make it out of the dryer. Over time they’re worth more than those fins. In recent months, I have lost two pillowcases in my dryer. I don’t know how that happened either. I mentioned the first one on Facebook, and one person replied that she lost a whole pillow in hers! Not sure how that could happen, and she’s not the kind of person who would make up something like that. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087/35 "2016-01-23T14:25:26Z")
So, it’s considered snark if it’s not what you want to hear? You don’t know that someone saw them and incorrectly assumed they were Bob’s! Cause they just saw him with some last week. They did him a favour and popped them into their trunk to give him later. But they forgot about them. Were so embarrassed, when they did see him, and he said they weren’t his, they dropped them into the next Goodwill bin they saw! You, in fact, don’t KNOW this was a crime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-a-police-report-or-not/743087.md?page=1)