waldersha

4:20am yesterday morning I wake up because the dog is barking. Get up and take a look around but don’t see anything out of the ordinary. End up going back to bed. At 7, go out and find out that my truck has been gone through, along with my wife’s’ car. A few things are missing from each.

Call the neighbor, they’ve been hit too. Things taken out of their cars as well, but total not really enough to do anything other than chalk it up to bad luck. We all get ready to leave for work (in the cars that have been rummaged through), drive to the top of our access drive and find a car in the drainage ditch about 6 feet deep. Car has a broken back window replaced with clear plastic and duct tape, broken side mirror and headlight, access door cut into the top of the trunk lid, and tricked out stereo along with the standard $2000 wheel/tire combo that you’d expect to see on this sort of car.

We call the sheriff and report the car along with the thefts and wait for them to arrive. Find a couple of boards that came from my house that the guy used to try to get his car out, then threw about 50 feet away in some grass. Deputy comes and takes the report, says she wants to get some pictures and will come down to the house after the car is towed. All this happens between 7-9 am.

At 11:30 have not seen anything of the officer and need to give work a status. Call again and am told that “she had to report to the jail, will be back with you”. At 2:30 call again because we still have not heard anything and have left everything as it was (can’t use the door, wifes’ car, etc). At 4:30pm we call again, 2nd unit being dispatched.

Officer shows up and takes a few pictures. I show them the door handle that we haven’t touched, pipe in the yard that was moved over by the trailer where the boards are missing from, wife’s car just as it was found that morning. They don’t try to get prints, just say that they’ll follow up with original officer.

This morning the initial officer shows up in my driveway. Says I was mistaken that she would come take pictures of the scene, but she is sorry. Says guy showed up with a friend to try to get his car out of the ditch. He agreed to be interviewed so she took him to the station. He promptly quit talking when they got there. Prior offender who has been in prison for burglary in the past. They’re forwarding the case to the DA’s office, but question if I can be sure it was my boards used. I show the officer the piece I cut off the board the night before. (Plywood with formica glued on top from my old countertop, not easily mistaken) She takes a few more pictures and says she’ll have her supervisor follow up.

Get a call at work this morning from supervisor. He says they tried to question the guy, but he “knows the system” so they had to let him go. Since none of the stolen property was clearly visible they released the car as well. They weren’t comfortable with trying to get a search warrant given the circumstances. (Car on marked dead end in ditch, owner convicted of prior burglary, materials I can prove came from my house marked with rubber from trying to get the car out). So the guy is gone, car is gone, and my property is gone. Not feeling real good about the system at this point, but am invited to call them if anything ever seems out of the ordinary.

Wasn’t really expecting a CSI style investigation out of the deal, but would like to have felt like they at least tried. Kicking myself now for all the things I could/should/would have done if I had known it would turn out this way.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant, but needed to get it off my chest. I know there are a lot of LEO’s on here, so maybe you can give me some insight and ease my mind?

firestorm

Sorry about your luck, just keep Mr. Wesson close by for next time.

staarma

Sounds to me like the "system" had it's way with you then kicked you to the curb. That really sucks. Hopefully the morons in the car will get theirs and soon.

Bark

Sorry for your problems. In our area there is only a couple of troopers for a large area so they dont print or anything unless a murder occured.
It may not help, but perhaps writing down what occured (like you already have) and delivering it to the Captain might stimulate a little more action.
They might be over worked like a lot of departments but who knows.

waldersha

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts. Believe me, I went to the door with Mr. Colt and wife was right behind with Mr. Wesson, just didn't see Mr. Perp or this would have been a much shorter story.

I'm sure they are overworked here as well, took quite a while to get someone out in the first place, just figure as long as they are there they might as well make it look like they are trying.

DaveB.inVa

The next morning after I miraculously found all mine and the neighbors stuff in the adjacent field, I would've called the sheriffs office to report a car fire.

Nick02Ram

I've had similar situations happen before in the past. Not to me personally, but to my brother, had all his car windows smashed, and our mailbox thrown into the field across the street. He had just broke up with his girlfriend, word of it spread around town due to her guy friends bragging about it. Told police the kids names, they all denied it...nothing more was done. I think LEO's these days are all afraid of being wrong and sued that they just let stuff go anymore

Hvytrkmech

Note to self, next time the dogs bark at 04:30 let them outside then follow them. Problem solved.

10-95

Sounds like you need to make an appointment to see the sheriff instead of venting here. My guys would have been in my office if they would have handled your call like that. I don't know if your dept fingerprints, but it's not hard, pics don't take long and the car would not have left w/o being searched. Making the guy talk, well, those days are over.

Everyone has a boss, including the sheriff and your local prosecutor.

chaikwa

While you are correct, his local department may be understaffed beyond . Here in Kalamazoo County, there are 2 sheriff's cars for the entire northern half of the county, another for the southern half and a traffic car. The detectives, (all 3 of them), spend most of their time with murders and drug investigations. Except for 911 service, there IS no service between 5PM and 8AM. They are essentially running an 8 to 5 law enforcement operation now.

All the deputies that used to be on the road are now either laid off or re-assigned, mostly to the over-crowded jail.

Totallyrad

Unless it was a crime involving injury or death they won't finger print the outside of a car here. In the case of a burglary of a residence they will work the outside of the residence. Your story is pretty typical but remember a couple things. The next time the dogs go to raising Cain, call the sheriff. There's no need to flip on lights and go outside, there's not much you can do. It's much better to watch quietly and know where the bad guy is hiding when 5-0 gets there. As far as the car in the pond, all they had to do was tow and inventory it prior to impound. As soon as they spotted something that was on the list, the inventory stops, the car goes to a secure bay while they wait on the warrant in the morning. The bad guys go to jail that night and everybody who should be happy is and screw the bad guys!

SORTIE

the sad fact is that crimes against property simply don't rate a LEO's time

which leaves citizens in an awkward position since you may NOT defend you property with deadly force (don't know about dogs)

it's a lousy system where the citizen is vulnerable and defenseless

1-2-3

A nice letter to the editor with your story in your local paper will go a long way. Unfortunately, this is just the way the world has become. Everyone keeps voting for the same ole lame politicians that keep allowing it. Several years ago, a guy came walking up to my house when I was out mowing. He introduced himself and said he was running for district attorney and was out meeting the people he wanted to take care of. I told him about the house on the corner, where the guy has an ice chest, and all you have to do is pick your bag of weed and leave your money, and asked if he were elected, what would he do about that. Then suddenly he was late for an appointment and had to go. Another lame politician that wasn't going to do his job and didn't get my vote.

waldersha

Property no, but as he was attempting to get into my house he may have ended up there anyway. Baseball bat in the car, which I'm sure was probably along in the first place.

If there is ever a next time, I guess the system will have to figure out what to do with me. I'm tired of these low-lifes doing this over and over again because they know how to work the system.

1-2-3

out where we live now, all I need is 1 bullet and a front end loader. when the cops come by to ask if I've seen anything I'll just say --only my new garden that I just planted