This is no ordinary “I found your leather jacket” post. Victoria writes:
My husband and I were on a late night dog walk [on 36th Street near Ashworth Ave N and Carr Place N] last Friday morning when we encountered a car prowler getting out of our neighbor’s vehicle. After we questioned what he was doing, he ran off, dropping a leather jacket. I suspect the leather jacket was taken from another vehicle and I would like to get it back to the owner.
Now, we want to get that leather jacket back to its owner as much as Victoria does, but, hey, while we’re at it, we would like to bash that car prowler’s head in! Really, people, this is getting ridiculous! Remember, Jay wrote in about car prowls in the same neighborhood, to loud “amens”. It’s getting so the only remarkable thing about such events is that the thieves dropped something.
What depresses us is how hopeless we all feel. Asked if she had called the police, Victoria said she had not:
I did not want to stay up and wait for the police. Another neighbor had told me a story about how he had called 911 when he saw two people vandalizing vehicles and the police did not come immediately…Plus, when my house was broken into it took the cops six hours to arrive – from 11 pm to 5am. My experience is the cops place car prowl lower than breaking and entering a home. They usually just want to take a report.
Anyway, I tried to call in the crime subsequently. However, since it was not my vehicle that was entered, the police would not take a crime report from me. I left a message with my neighbor whose car was entered and asked him to call the police and report the crime.
We are astounded that the police refused to take the report. This frustration matches our own experience. We actually popped our head out own window one evening to see someone in our car, going through our glove box. We called 911 to report the burglary in progress, but the 911 operator refused to contact a patrol car until she had taken a full report.
What’s my full name? What’s my age? My name is GET OVER HERE and I’m THERE’S SOMEONE IN MY CAR years old!
Criminitly.
Anyway, Victoria, you blew your chance to get Fail Blog FAIL and WIN stamps from Jay (see his offer in previous post), but hopefully you’ll make a leather jacket owner happy.
If that’s your jacket, contact us and we’ll pass you along to Victoria.
Got to defend SPD anecdotally here. When walking my dogs early one morning, I saw a car prowler about to bust a window and shouted at him to get away from the car. A neighbor’s light snapped on, and she shouted that she was calling 911. I shouted back the direction the prowler ran. I saw a cruiser speed down the street just a few minutes later. Alas, the prowler was not caught, apparently, as he pulled up next to me in his car, called me a bitch, then sped away. I didn’t get that f*cker’s license #.
Many have since pointed out that confronting a prowler by myself in the early a.m. darkness was, shall we say, a Darwin-Award winning move. But it’s amazing how pissed off you get when you see someone breaking the rules. My inner preschooler comes raging forth.