That sucks. I know how it is when it comes to lazy police. I got robbed once. They broke open my garage door one night, and just took everything that they could. It sucked.
By morning, when I woke up, and realized what had happened, I had called the police to report the break-in. They seemed less than thrilled to want to take my call. Tho, they did send a squad car over. Tho he arrived like 30 to 45 mins later. Solo cop. No partner. He pulls up, walks up to the garage door, as it was still wide open. I was standing outside, but I hadn't touched anything. I did a quick look around, and noticed that a bunch of stuff was gone. But I couldn't confirm exactly what was gone and what was still there, until I could go through everything. But I didn't want to touch it until the cop saw it. So, anyways, the cop pulls up, walks to my garage, takes a quick glance inside and asks if this is the garage that had gotten broken into. I'm thinking, does he think that there's another garage at this address??. So I say yeah, of course. He nods his head, asks if he can come inside the opened garage. I say absolutely, look around. He steps into the middle of my garage, spins around slowly, as he looks around. Then, he pulls out his notebook, and asks for my name and confirms the address, as he writes it down. Then, he asked what time the robbery happened. I said that it was sometime overnight, but I don't know the exact time. I went to bed around 11pm the night before, and woke up at 6:30am that morning. So it had to of been sometime between then. Tho now it was closer to 7:30am. The cop just nods, while mummering, "mm hmm, mm hmm", as he's still writing. Then, he asks if there was anything missing. So I said yeah, there were several things missing. But I won't know everything until I go over everything, but I didn't want to touch anything. He said to just name off what I know is missing. So I said ok, and started in one corner of the garage, and pointed to where things were as I say "that's missing, that's gone, such and such isn't there, that's been taken, etc.etc"". Just naming off things that were clearly gone. By the time I got to the 4th item, he gave this big gasping sigh, like he was irritated beyond belief. I looked at him, and he just sighed again, put his head down, and shook it back and forth, as he placed his hand on his forehead, with his eyes closed. He clearly didn't want to be there. So he said, I'll be right back. And then he walks to his car, grabs a piece of paper, and then comes and brings it back to me, and tells me to fill out that form and mail it in, and that all of the info I need is on the paper. Then he starts to head back to his car. I stop him and say, hey, wait a second, that's it. And he goes, 'yeah', then starts to walk away again. I ask him, 'you're not going to inquire more, or even look around, or finger print anything, or even finish taking my statement, or anything else?'. And he shook his head and said nope, that there's no need to, and that I should just fill out the form, mail it in, and then, after it gets processed, then they'll start to look into it. It was at that exact moment that I knew that all of my stuff was gone for good.
The cop didn't care. He just wanted to get out of there. In fact, he was "in and out" within less than 2 minutes. Yep, you read that right. Between the time he pulled up, and pulled out, it was less than 2 minutes. And he seemed irritated that he had to be there. His tone with me, after he sighed, was like he was upset with me about the whole situation, and about him having to be there. The moment he pulled away, I immediately called the police again, to complain about what had just happened. About how he not only didn't care, but didn't even try to finish taking my statement, and that attitude he had towards for even taking the info. The woman on the other end didn't care at all either. She told me the exact same thing he told me. Just to fill out the paper work, send it in, and then, after they process it, then they'll look into it. Also, after it's processed, they'll get the insurance company/s into it, and get back to me with how much everything was worth and what the insurance company/s quote on this and that, and what not. I tried to inquire more information from her about it, about the process, about everything. Nope, nothing. Not a care in the world. She said that when they find something out, that they'll let me know, but that they can't do anything until after the paperwork is filled out and turned in, for insurance purposes, and that I have 14 days to fill out and return the paper. I never expected them to call back, or to hear anything again, but I filled out the paper and mailed it in. And here, just a couple of years later, nothing. As expected. I don't even think that they looked into it, to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if it's not even been processed yet, to be honest.
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I did have to call the cops again, at another point. This one was weird. I went to drop some lunch off at my girlfriend's work. I parked in the parking lot, walked inside to give her her lunch. She wasn't on break yet, and was busy, so it was just a quick in and out by me. I'm back outside in less than 2 minutes. So, I go back to my car, I get in, and all of a sudden, I notice an ice-chest sitting in the passenger seat, along with a tote bag on the floor of the passenger seat. I thought, oops, this isn't my car. So I quickly got out of the car, thinking that I accidentally hopped into somebody else's car, and I didn't want anybody to think that I was stealing somebody else's car. So I quickly got out, locked and closed the door, took a step back, and then looked around for my car. However, I couldn't find my car, anywhere. Confused, I looked back the car that I was just in, and it looks like my car. Only, the stuff that I had in the seats, and on the visor, and in the coin tray, and that holder thingy between the driver and passenger seats, weren't there. Nothing of mine was in the car, but the car itself looked like mine. So I checked out the license plate number of the car, and sure enough, it was my car. So I looked around all around. Nobody was near me. Not a single soul. I'm in a parking lot, full of cars, but nobody in view. I look under the car, and around the cars near mine, but nope, nobody. So I'm confused, as I know that this ice chest and tote bag weren't in my car when I pulled up, and, all of my doors were still locked. So, how did these items get into my car. I know I locked my car when I pulled up, as I always lock my car.
Baffled, I hop in my car, drive across the street, to the parking lot across the street. And then sit in my car, as I looked around. Trying to see if maybe I could see somebody going back to where I had parked across the street. I didn't notice anybody in the general area. I saw other people around, but they were with other people, laughing and talking, but no where near where I had parked, and not even anywhere near that general position. So, I called the cops right there, told them that I believed that somebody had just broken into my car, and left stuff behind. I think what happened was that they saw me park, get out of my car, and go inside of the building. So they figured that they had plenty of time to get into my car. So they break in by unlocking one of the doors somehow (i'm guessing the passenger door, since that's where all of the stuff was), and then happened to see me come out almost immediately. Which scared them, so they immediately got out and closed the door, leaving their stuff inside. That's why I drove across the street, to see if I could see somebody around. But nope. Nothing.
Anyways, I had called the cops to let them know that I think that I had just had a break-in in my car, and that whoever it was left stuff in my car, and that I wanted to give those items to them for evidence and what not. They told me that they could send out a squad car, but that they won't arrive for about 7 to 8 hours. So to wait around for about 7 to 8 hours. I thought, 7 to 8 hours, that's ridiculous. They told me that I could go home, and forget about this, or try again tomorrow. So now I'm thinking, wait, it went from 7 to 8 hours, to tomorrow. Wow. Just, wow.
Afterwards, I just went home, and took the stuff into my house, as I didn't want it sitting in my car. Another 2 hours goes by, and I get curious enough to finally open up everything. I figure, I've already touched it, and knowing what happened last time, they aren't going to bother with investigating anyways. So I opened up everything. In the ice chest were everything that was missing out of my car. So I got all of those back. Even stuff that was originally in my glove compartment, which I didn't even think to look in at the time. So, I recovered everything that was mine. However, also in the ice chest is what looked like other items from other people's cars. Sunglasses, air fresheners, etc.etc. But also, there were portable radios, and batteries, and tools, and wires, and some random nic-nak stuff. I then open up the bag, and there is tons of clothes in the bag. Tons. But they all still have the price tags on them, as if they were stolen from a store. But, the price tags were all generic tags, with no labels. Making me think that they were some thrift stores or goodwill stores, or any other kind of second-hand store. There were some other random stuff in there too. I laid everything out on the floor, and then called the cops again. Telling this new person the story of what just happened. That somebody got into my car, and left their stuff in my car, and it all looks stolen from different places. And do you know what this guy told me. "Keep it". Seriously. He said keep it. I told him that I didn't want any of this, and that it was highly unlikely that they would ever catch anybody over this. However, they can at least take it off of my hands, and fill out a report, and perhaps, at the very least, return the stolen clothes to a store that may happen to report them missing. If they do. And, at the same time, hold onto the other stuff, in case somebody calls to complain that their car got broken into. Then you can at least tell them that hey, they won't be able to find who stole their stuff, but at least they have found their stuff to give back to them. But nope, he said that was unnecessary, and to just keep everything.
I told him that I understood that this effort to give these items to the police is most likely just a fruitless venture, and that it's most likely going to go unclaimed, and that it's probably wasting your time, and that you don't want to fill out a report, at the very least, to even report anything like this. Perhaps they don't like filling out what they consider "unnecessary" reports. However, that this was still their job. And that I knew about having stuff stolen from me. And that if I had found out that somebody had found my stuff, and tried to turn in it so that it could go back to the rightful owner, and the police's response to them was just to keep it. That I'd be upset over that. But again, he told me just to keep it, as they were too busy. However, if I really wanted them to send a cop over, that it would take 3 to 4 days. So I just said forget it. I later took the stuff to the police station myself. But they wanted nothing to do with it there either. Told me that if I didn't want it, to just donate it to the goodwill. So, in the end, I did that, just to get rid of it. And have since never called the police again.
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I do have another cop story from here tho. It's not my story, however. It happened to a good friend of mine. However, it's a long story, and gets way, way off topic. However, it was more messed up than my stories. Perhaps another time. It was crazy tho.
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Anyways, I'll keep an eye out for a copy of Melee for you. I haven't looked in a long time. But again, if I can find something for you, I'll post it. In the meantime, good luck with that.
