What will the police do?

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kiln

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
Messages
2,464
Alright so my brother had a pistol stolen from him and he knows exactly who took it because only one couple had been to his house in the time that it came up missing. He also has all relevant information needed to identify the gun and the names of both people involved.

My question is, will the police go to the person's house and search it for the stolen gun or will they just put it into the database of stolen firearms and wait for it to turn up?

It will be a sad day if the gun is permanently lost. This is it so you can all mourn with us:

http://m848.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/Myguns223/My guns/PolishP64.jpg.html?o=3
 
they wont search the guys house or anything. a stolen gun or any stolen property is a very low priority to them
 
BIG difference btwn knowing & proving.

I was LEO and many people "knew" who stole their property.

BUT that means NOTHING in a court of law.

Proof is the only thing and from your statement about who had access to the house = no proof.

That might be called heresay at best.

Proof is a photo,or eye witness that will swear to the facts [ many wont as they are afraid ].

Please dont blame the police for the actions of courts and lawyers.
 
I agree with the second post, but at the same time, some police departments are less busy than others. You might catch them on a slow day, when they have time to run down a couple of facts and write a page or two to present to the judge, to be able to surprise them with a warrant. Especially if one of the suspects is a restricted person.
 
The report was filed this morning.

I wasn't expecting a SWAT team to break the door down or something but it would be nice if they'd at least question the people about it.
 
I had to repair a broken window in the winter that was in a vacant home. Tracks in the newly-fallen snow led right over to the house next door!

The state police came to investigate. When I asked if the officer was going to go next door and confront the burglars, his response was "we need to have probable cause in order to do that, and we don't have probable cause."

The fact that the vacant house full of furnishings was sitting there unattended would seem to be probable cause in my mind!

What does a thief do?
They break into homes (preferably while the homeowner is not there) for the sole purpose of STEALING GOODS!

:banghead:
:fire:
:cuss:
:mad:
 
Ny neighbor had some guns and electronics stolen from his house and filed a report, he also asked around the neighborhood to see if anyone had seen someone at his place during the day. They had and he knew them from the description he was given, he went over to their place and asked for his stuff back and it was given. Might be worth a try?
 
This was about fifteen years ago, now. Besides, I was only replacing the window that got torn out of the frame (an entire-new window assembly needed to be installed).

I felt that the trooper might have been a rookie who didn't really know all the laws. When you saw the torn-out window unit and the tracks to and from the neighboring home, it was, to me, a "no-brainer." However, what do I know about LAW and Justice?:uhoh:
 
Here's the routine most P.D.s will follow with that reported stolen weapon. The officer will take a report, the gun will be entered into the nationwide data base as stolen, and the case will assigned to a detective.... Now for the fun part.... That case will be one of quite a few that a detective bureau will get every day (or every week, depending on when they assign cases). Crimes get divided into property crimes (something stolen, damaged, or destroyed) and crimes against persons... Crimes against persons will always be first priority, period - property crimes get worked but not with the manpower that crimes against persons will get every time (and you'd want assaults, rapes, murders to get more attention).

If there's a suspect listed, then a preliminary records check will be done first to see who they're dealing with. With a bit of luck that individual will have a warrant outstanding and an arresting officer, if it's at their house, might just be able to turn it into something.... Very tough to do much more than that unless the guy is up to lots of other things.... since it's a rare guy who jumps up and says "I did it" and shows the detective where the gun is... but stranger things have happened - and they do all the time...

The good news (also the bad news) is that weapon will be in the system forever until it's recovered - no matter where that is. I've actually recovered weapons that were listed as stolen for more than thirty years before a recovery was made. By that time it's almost impossible to contact the original complainant - but agencies do make the attempt....

The bottom line is that if you get ripped off, your homeowner's insurance is likely your only hope. If they do catch someone with your weapon, be a good witness, go to all the court proceedings, etc. until the case is resolved - no matter who it is they've caught. Consider it a form of pest control...
 
Person in question is already on probation for a minor crime so maybe they'll actually look into it.
 
Alright so my brother had a pistol stolen from him and he knows exactly who took it because only one couple had been to his house in the time that it came up missing.
Click to expand...

Person in question is already on probation for a minor crime so maybe they'll actually look into it.
Click to expand...

Seems like he already knew that his "friend" had some character faults, there is a lesson somewhere here.
 
lemaymiami pretty much nailed it where I work. A patrol officer would take a report and list the suspect, and the serial number would be entered into a database as stolen. Your brother's story would matter. "They were the only people in the house" isn't a lot to go on. Did the suspects handle the gun, mention the gun, know where it was stored, etc?

A detective would need to file for a warrant to search the suspect's residence. They need to have a lot more information than "These people were at my house. Now my gun is gone" to get a judge to sign a warrant.

I had to repair a broken window in the winter that was in a vacant home. Tracks in the newly-fallen snow led right over to the house next door!
Click to expand...

It doesn't snow much here, but if I noticed my neighbor's window was broken I'd probably walk over to see if they were OK. There would be tracks leading to and from my house to the window I inspected. This may look like evidence of a crime, but in that case my footprints would have nothing to do with it. My point is that stuff that looks like fool proof evidence may not be.

To be fair, police do not need probable cause to walk up to a house and knock on a door, but in some departments the detectives like to talk to a suspect before a patrol officer alerts them that they are suspect, in which case the officer would note the footprints in a report, photograph them if any detail can be made out in the tread, and pass the buck to a detective.
 
Lots and lots more to be said about what actually happens after you make that report "I was robbed".... and I very carefully didn't go into them.

There are one or two things that should be added as advice to any victim of a crime. The first item is to let your neighbors know you got hit. One of them just might have seen something and speak up when they might not provide the info to officials. If you find a potential witness, call whoever has the case and notify them with contact info (when will they be home, are they likely to want to get involved...). Simply letting your neighbors know what happened will bring additional eyes and ears on board. Thieves seldom do just one rip... the sad part is many times they've done multiple crimes before getting caught.

Here's one thing that your lawyer might agree with...be very cautious about publicly accusing someone of a crime. It's perfectly correct to point out a possible suspect... publicly accusing someone of a crime without proof positive will give your lawyer (and you...) a bad case of indigestion if it becomes an issue - and more than one really bad guy has taken advantage of a victim's very real sense of outrage....

I'll get down off of my soapbox now. Most of the above advice is stuff I learned over a career in law enforcement - and most cops get really tired of seeing good folks get ripped off. Occasionally thieves do get caught - just not often enough for me.
 
The days of protect and serve are long gone. Its all about law enforcement now. Only way youre getting your property back is if its in the suspects car and hes speeding or doesnt have a seatbelt on. Then youll get 3 cars on him with K9 in minutes.
 
Have the owner determine who the suspect's probation officer is. That information should be available at the clerk of the court's office (it's public record if the suspect is an adult.) Then, contact the PO and see what he thinks of it.
 
I had one stolen several years ago. I had a good idea who got it but no proof. I told the detective of my suspicions and he interviewed the guy I thought that it was. Didn't get anything out of it but I was glad he talked to him. I actually did get the gun back about 3 years later. Detective told me that it was recovered in a traffic stop about 30 miles away. They had had it for about a year but didn't tell me until after it was released from evidence.
 
Probable cause is needed for a search warrant. The "i know they took it" story wont pass the test for a judge to sign a warrant.
 
X-Rap said:
Seems like he already knew that his "friend" had some character faults, there is a lesson somewhere here.
Click to expand...
Was a relative that stopped by for a random visit...I dunno, I guess you just never expect your family to do this to you.

Right after they left he noticed that the gun was gone, they were the only ones that had been to the house and knew where the gun was.
 
Just wanted to add an anecdote to this.

A couple years ago my brother had his apartment robbed and among the thousands of dollars worth of stuff stolen was our grandpa's .357 revolver.

The Maplewood, MO police department filed a report for my brother, then promptly gave him a citation for having an "unregistered" handgun. Apparently in MO it's a requirement to register any guns you have, regardless of whether or not the gun existed in the state prior to the registration law.

He never heard anything about his stolen stuff.

It's definitely an injustice to have your residence ransacked and robbed, but nobody really cares except you. If you know who it was, file a civil suit and go on Judge Judy.
 
With all due respect to the LEOs on this thread, it seems to many of us that you guys are stuck between actually doing the right thing and making the politicians and the department lawyers happy.

I have never had anything returned even after making a stolen property report. I have had interactions with cops who should not have been trusted with a badge, but passed some standard tests and apparently met the minimum requirements for service.

Maybe some men here from smaller towns can answer this. Are the cops easier to get along with? Are they accountable and have integrity in their daily actions?
 
Maybe some men here from smaller towns can answer this. Are the cops easier to get along with? Are they accountable and have integrity in their daily actions?
Click to expand...

depends on the individual mostly, sometimes there are systemic corruption problems with a particular entity though.

oh and , IBTL.
 
I live in a small town of less than 10,000 people. We have 11 officers. Half are career officers that started out here, and the other half are those that have already put their 20 years in somewhere else. Most people know the officers by their first name. When there is a crime here, it gets investigated relatively quickly and completely. There's a few bad seeds in this town, as in any town, that the police have to deal with, but for the most part the whole department is pretty laid back (i.e. going 5 mph over the limit isn't usually going to get you pulled over). It's nice to know that if my wife had to call 911 for any reason an officer would be their in a matter of minutes and she would recognize the officer at the door.
 
Those expecting the police to just "go over there and get it", need to keep in mind that one persons "I think they took" does not override another persons Constitutional rights.

Would you want your door banged on and you ordered around, just on someone saying "I think he........."?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top