OT Should I tell the police?

[Pico Rico]

I say again:

"If they won't just run it, tell them where it is and let them investigate."

[RobertMacy]

Usually 'head in' parking, so memo to self: "Must get one of those 'wobbly head' dolls to place in rear window!"

However, today it's a lot easier to use the key and simply push the button to unlock the car, flashing its lights. ;)

[micky]

I haven't read all the replies yet, but I want to give the remainder of the story before the list of threads moves on

I decided to call the non-emergency number, like the preceing cop told me to do, and to call from a pay phone, so I'd be anonymous and could hang up whenever I wanted to.

I can't remember where any pay phones still are so I went to a suburban hotel. I figured they'd have one but they didn't. She had me use the house phone, labeled free for local calls. The woman who answered said we don't run plates here, but if you give me the location I'll send a police car out to check it out. I said no and thanked her and hung up.

Later, farther out of town, I drove right past a state police "barracks". That hadn't even occurred to me, but I stopped. At 6PM there was no lighting in the lobby, just a dim light coming from behind the state policeman sitting in a plexiglass cave.

He too wanted to know where the car was. I said my girlfriend told me not to say.

Finally I said, "I"m not asking you to tell me who owns the car, only if it is reported stolen", and then he said okay, and he went to another corner of the room and came back and said it wasn't reported stolen yet.

So that's good.

I wonder if I'd said that to the first cop, if he'd have done what I wanted. I was clear, I just asked if the car were stolen, never who owned it, but people hear the same question that is usually asked.

As far as a neighbor being dead in his home, if he's dead now, he was dead 2 weeks into this, when I was sure he was on vacation. Now that he's gone so long, he/she might be in the hospital himself, or he/she might have gone to his parents to take care of his mother or father, who is still sick.

Also the mailmen are supposed to keep track of who doesn't empty his mailbox and do something if it appears the person inside is too sick to do that. That won't work for me. I have a slot in the door and it would take 10 years before he pile of mail in the hall reached that high.

Thanks for all the advice. It was interesting to see your views on this.

Micky

[Stormin Mormon]

You know, I've never had a vehicle new enough to do that. You're right.

[RobertMacy]

Thanks for the update.

In California, you can call the DMV give the plate numbers and find out if stolen, or lien, not get the owner's name though.

[RobertMacy]

I still drive the younger of my two cars, the 1977 Mercedes.

What I keep losing are those 'rentals'

[micky]

The only crime it might have been was auto theft, and I didn't contanimate anything. I didn't touch anything but the right rear tire valve.

But none that are good.

I only claim there is one, buit it's a very good one. They were going to tow the car away if I didn't pump up the tire. That means possible damage during the hookup or tow, that the car won't be there when the owner gets home, that he'll have to pay for the tow and, as of now, about 4 weeks of storage. That's hundreds of dolllars. Plus a taxi or a favor from a friend to get to the two lot, which is about 10 mile from here and would take 3 buses to get there on public transportation.

That if he's gone too long, because he's unconscious in a hospital perhaps, they will eventually sell his car.

All because he has a slow leak he might well not have known about, A tire that stayed inflated 3 or 4 weeks since the last time I pumped it up.

The police insisted that they wouldn't do anything unless the car was stolen, if they came out here. Now you're suggesting they would check the owner's home address, ring the doorbell, knock on the door, and break in if he didn't answer>. Even I don't think t hey woudl do that. Were that their plan, and he was out of town, that's all the more reason I don't want the police involved.

That's why I wanted to stay anonymous.

I doubt it. My other interactions with the police convince me that they rarely go to so much trouble. It's not like TV. Neither number I called was 911 or an 800 number. They still might have caller id, even in the face of *67, but I'm not worried. If I had yelled at them, "I'm not giving you the address so you can screw over the owner," then they might have pursued me, because they're annoyed, but I'm polite and don't make accusations.

[micky]

Not here. That's partly because very few cars are registered with the HOA. For decades, none were, and there was also no towing by the HOA, until we went through a period where a lot of families had more than 2 cars, and then it was hard to park even in the center of the street, away from the homes. Even though there are about 30 spaces in the center (5 or 7 of which are used by the small number of houses that have only one parking place right in front of the house.)

They made stronger rules and started towing cars that didn't have plates or didn't run, and that should have been more than enough, but once people get the hang of something, they keep it up even wheni it's not necessary. (Now just about every car in the n'hood is used every day. In the middle of the day, there might be 10 cars left in the are out of more than 100 that are here at night. And it's not the same 10 that stay home every day) At night there are still 5 or 10 empty spots, and there are no cars with expired plates, none that don't run, and so there's no real need to tow. Certainly not for a flat tire.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You are assuming they would take another car. I'm sure some would, but if you leave a piece of candy on the table, would your 6 year old just ignore it?

Maybe I'd go after a repeat offender, but I'd not jail a first offender.

[Pico Rico]

I am sure they are not going after 6 year olds.

And "first time caught" does not equate to "first time offender". Nobody's luck is that bad.

[TimR]

When I worked law enforcement, I was told generally a person did not end up with jail time before the 5th offense, unless it was a major one.

[Pico Rico]

I have heard that burglars commit dozens and dozens of offenses before they are caught.

[Stormin Mormon]

Besides, six year olds feet can't reach the pedals.

I'm a non thief. I was in a friend's house the other day, looking for a bread bag tie. In the one drawer was a high value paper money bill. I closed the drawer and kept looking for bread bag ties. And yes, my feet can reach the pedals.

[Stormin Mormon]

a person did not end up with jail time before the 5th offense, unless it was a major one.

So much for punitive learning?

[Tekkie®]

micky posted for all of us...

I may not have read all messages.

Ebola quarantine

[micky]

Others in this thread have asked the same question in one way or the other.

Because many of us, including me, are obliged to "love your neighbor as yourself" and I accept the obligation. If I went on a trip and had a flat tire at home while I was out of town, I'd be happy if someone else pumped it up.

They are trained to be suspicious, and sometimes they're suspicious when there is nothing wrong, and/or when they have no legal right to act on their suspicions. This is, I think, especially true in cities and suburbs near big cities.

I've had too many bad experiences (5 I can recall. I don't think there are more.) with police to believe that if there's nothing suspicious, they won't do anything. I'm white. I'm only 5'8" and I have an average build. I don't have the big arms or thick neck of a weight-lifter. I don't look threatening. I don't use profanity. I don't scowl at people, even police. I didn 't grow up poor or rich,. I'm still not poor or rich. I wear sport shirts and slacks or shorts, I've never worn t-shirts or jeans***, no weird hair cuts or slogans on my clothes. For a year or more I had long hair, but none of the incidents with the police occurred then. I do drive a convertible, but I don't drive a hot car or one with a loud muffler. And I don't talk back, and still they give me crap. (For half of the incidents I was clean-shaven and the rest I had a full beard, but not trimmed in any weird or crackpot manner.)

***Only because I don't find t-shirts or jeans comfortable.

As I said they do a lot of good, and many/most of them are brave and some of them are heroes, but it's human nature for someone in their job to do some things which in fact cause harm. I can't emphasize enough that I think the excesses are usually the result of normal human nature, and not the acts of psychos**. At the same time, other police have a different nature and are very unlikely to do the sort of things I'm complaining about.

**And I know the police force in almost all jurisdictions go to a lot of trouble, with tests and interviews and background checks, to weed out the psychos before they are admitted, and, probably to a lesser extent, afterwards too, and I think they are more than 95% successful. If there are any psychos who made it into the police, they are not the ones that concern me. It's the ones that are so committed to doing a good job that they sometimes overdo it.

(In one city when the police started wearing body cameras, the use of force went down 60% and complaints went down 85%. That doesn't mean all

60% of the use of force before the cameras were in use was unjustified, or that all 85% of the earlier complaints were justified, but it does mean something in that direction. )

[micky]

It's my policy to read to the end of a sub-thread before replyig. But I very often forget to do that. And I forgot this time.

If I'd read this post first, I would have looked for somewhere else to put the post that was in reply to your previous one. Like I said, others expressed the same thought.

[micky]

ROTFL.

[micky]

Long ago, I saw a cartoon in a magazine: A guy arrives home late to a neighborhood where all the houses are alike. He stops at a pay phone and calls his house, so that they turn the lights on and he can find the house he lives in.

[micky]

A friend stopped by with a rental last night. When he used the fob, the lights all flashed INCLUDING the back-up lights.

Then when he opened the door, everything on the dash and all the buttons on the door lit up. Not just some but every one.

It's not much, but it's something I can look forward to.