I found out last night. She’s been on leave and so on a different schedule, and the burglar struck during a time she’s now regularly out of the house. So he was obviously casing her house for some time. Apparently crawled in through a doggie door. Stole a camera, a cell phone, some other items and several mason jars full of change along with her husband’s state commemorative quarter collection. Took his sweet time too, went through her underwear drawer and a big bag of costume jewelry.
She called the police. Their response was less than stellar. They didn’t dust for prints. The best lead absent prints is the cell phone records. The burglar placed literally hundreds of calls in a few hours (which in itself is baffling yet vaguely impressive I guess). The cop’s attitude was like “get me that list of calls today if you can because I’m off for three days after today.” When my friend suggested that maybe following up sooner than three days might be prudent, the cop’s response was “they aren’t going anywhere.” Um, excuse me? This is finals week in a college town. Everyone is going everywhere. So my friend is feeling pissed off, violated and reinforced in her previous belief that the cops in this town can’t be arsed to do their jobs.
So here’s a hearty “fuck you” to the burglar and a heartier “fuck you” to the cop who might actually be able to catch him if it didn’t interfere with his day off.
Bummer. I was burgled TWICE in ONE WEEK. They took my husband’s knife collection, leather jackets, $200, beer and cigarettes, ALL MY CDs, and some gold jewelry. After the second one, I was afraid to be in my house. The cops said they were going to try to get funding to do a stakeout, but they couldn’t. It just sucks. I was creeped out for a while afterward.
Do they dust for prints after burglaries? It seems like it could be an expensive measure to take for such a routine crime.
Not to downplay what happened to you, though. I’d be mighty pissed if I was in your shoes, and I’d probably start by escalating to the cop’s supervisor…
Why the fuck, as a society, do we accept cops who routinely don’t investigate this kind of thing? Why have we decided to curl up and accept the idea that handing out parking tickets is more important than dealing with burglaries? Is this really something that’s okay with us? Okey-dokey, take our stuff whenever you can? What the fuck is wrong with the police that a cop could actually say something like that without getting his ass fired? Goddammit, how can the cops just decide not to investigate something like this, at the cost of the homeowner’s possessions and utter terror? IS BURGLARY FUCKING OKAY WITH THEM?
sorry about that . . . got a little bit wound up as i went on . . .
:: takes a deep cleansing breath ::
My sympathies to your friend, Otto. We were burgled when I was 18 and it is REALLY hard to get over - especially when you see they have just touched all of your stuff. That is just TOO creepy. Let your friend know you’ll be there for her if she hears things go bump in the night - she will.
Right. Because it couldn’t have just been coincidence; no way her home was just a target of opportunity.
This here tells me that her house just wasn’t worth the time, effort & risk of a “casing.” Ain’t nothin of any great value there.
That said, the investigating cop sucks. But the reason they’re not spending much time on this, is that there’s nothing traceable, or even of any real value. Waste of effort and they know it. Plus, arresting burglars doesn’t pay for all that fancy equipment they “have” to have these days. Gotta write traffic tickets to generate revenue.
They have a doggie door big enough for a person to fit through and no comensurate sized doggie on the other side to eat burglars? I think I’d be closing that door off, or looking for a new doggie that knew his job.
Even if they dust (as the detective who showed up after we were robbed once did), it wouldn’t likely do much. (I don’t think they got the guys here).
Don’t watch CSI for a while - people doing luminol/DNA/tire impression/video enhancement for every parking infraction is likely to get you down.
Hmm. I note you’re in the 'states. Couldn’t you say you suspect your jars of pennies are going to be used to fund terrorism? That always seems to get a half-dozen agencies down there moving.
Don’t know why you’re getting snitty about this. Does the idea that the joint was cased offend your burgling sensibilities somehow?
I don’t think the guy was doing much “casing” beyond noting her schedule. I think it was a student from the neighborhood, based on that there are a large number of students in the area and that many of the cell phone calls (those to land lines) were to other houses in the neighborhood. It doesn’t seem like it would take that much effort to, I don’t know, go to the houses where those land lines run and ask who called them. Odds are the caller is the burglar.
Maybe next time they’ll take something more valuable or rape or kill someone coming home unexpectedly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
She has cats and they use the door. She’s already called her handyman about getting a new door with a smaller cat flap.
I feel for your friend, and when we were robbed in February (at a time, most unfortunately when we were not not at home, and thus were at home to be threatened and such) the police were responsive, and did come and do things like dust for prints (in case you were ever wondering, wipe the fingerprint powder off the glass first, then use windex, that crap runs like mascara). They were never able to catch the guys, but they did, at the very least, seem quite apologetic about it. Still, it’s a traumatic experience to have your home invaded like that, and then to have nothing come of it, it’s just kind of awkward and distressing.
I think he meant that the recievers of the calls aren’t going anywhere (which they aren’t). I imagine that they would contact those people and try to put together a list of suspects based on their friends and associates, if they were so inclined. You could probably do this yourself from you phone bill - Nancy Drew style.
I would guess that local cops don’t really do much because:
-They are usually pretty dumb
-They aren’t PhDs like the forensic geniuses on CSI
-It’s expensive and time consuming
-No one got hurt
-Loses are often covered by insurance
I’ve never been “burgled” but I fucking hate theives of any kind.
They are if they’re students. The mass student migration is going to hit in seven days, when school year leases end and summer leases begin. The people at the other end of the phone calls, if they’re students, will probably be moving to new apartments, or leaving town for three months, or perhaps leaving town permanently. Hella easier for the cops to find them now rather than waiting even three days.
