# Registered Letter from "Dept of Police" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 22, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458 "2007-08-22T03:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/21 "2007-08-22T20:56:25Z")
[QUOTE=Runestar] Don’t know about Portland, but here in Carmel Indiana, if your house has an alarm system, you have to have a permit filed with the city before it can be activated. However, the permit is a one-time only fee here, and there’s no annual renewal required. [/QUOTE] Ah, thank you, **Runestar**. I admit that I was first imagining that this was a completely mad thing invented by the scammer, perhaps in the hope of finding some very old/confused person who would pay up to anything if it looked even semi-official, but now I can see that it makes just enough sense for it to sound legit. I have no idea how it works here but I can see that it would make a bit of sense for the local police _et cetera_ to know who was planning to run a very loud alarm system in their houses, and of course it it were to be an alarm system linked to the local police station, then police and fire and ambulance would want to know. Now if alarms are fair game, how long before we need to pay for a permit for excursions too? Yay, scammers, you go and try to scam Bill Shakepeare, 'cos you will love it, as he liked to spell his name in quite as many ways as your classic scammer does. Oooh, the fun. (I might even buy a “permit of excursion” - would it be needed to let me go on a 'bus from the city to spend a day at the seaside?) 😃 (Or perhaps I mean not “'bus” but “charabanc”.) And good luck, **Dan Blather** with your new pen friend in Nigeria. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/22 "2007-08-22T21:59:28Z")
Contact the Postal Inspectors, & complain. The PIs are often effective in tracing shakedowns. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/23 "2007-08-23T04:53:01Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] Basically the same, but it’s $25 per-year. It’s to cover the cost of police responding to alarms, 95% of which are false. So you furners not only get medical care free, you also get free police? Bunch of Socialists 🙂 [/QUOTE] Twice in one year I was the 5%. I live in SE 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/24 "2007-08-23T16:07:39Z")
> [@](#): > > I hear Gitmo is nice in the fall… Fortunately, the American Psychological Association just [banned psychologists](http://psychcentral.com/news/2007/08/22/apa-bans-psychologists-from-torture-interrogations/) from torture interrogations. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/25 "2007-08-23T16:19:41Z")
Sting, Andy, and Stewart want to meet you. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/26 "2007-08-23T16:22:22Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] So you furners not only get medical care free, you also get free police? Bunch of Socialists 🙂 [/QUOTE] If it’s free, why are they taxed? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/27 "2007-08-23T16:25:27Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Contact the Postal Inspectors, & complain. The PIs are often effective in tracing shakedowns. [/QUOTE] Why? It was legit. See post #15. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/28 "2007-08-23T22:24:26Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Why? It was legit. See post #15. [/QUOTE] I read #15. He uses sarcasm to imply the guy is a fake. So/ :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458/29 "2007-08-24T00:20:28Z")
Google “Portland Department of Police” yields zero hits. I hope this helps to put you at ease. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registered-letter-from-dept-of-police/416458.md?page=1)