Crazy thing happened today, what would you do?

[NebrClone]

Isn't the murder clearance rate only like 50%?

When you take away all the ones where its really obvious who it is likely to be from the jump (ones who did it with a bunch of witnesses, romantic partners, etc) I don't know that the number is actually all that high when there's nothing to directly connect the murderer to the victim.

Though yes, you are right for sure that there will be more effort towards finding it than just the theft.

I would have videos and turned it over to the police. Better than a description.

 

[BCClone]

IMO people smashing windows and stealing stuff happens. I consider it an act of god. Certainly not anything worth putting my physical safety on the line for.

For the record I’ve had stuff stolen from my home and I really struggled pressing charges. Felt terrible about it.

You felt bad about turning in people robbing you?

 

[BoomerClone]

Guessing he didnt know you were there. If he was going to shoot he would have done it when your door opened or he saw the first signs of you. You were a sitting duck inside the vehicle so getting out and making noise was going to scare them off.

Smash and grabbers are not the likeliest to be armed. They seem to like to hit and run at first issue. What did you wife expect you to do? If you sat there quietly he would have kept smashing windows most likely. Until he came to yours

He had no clue I was there. The total look of surprise on his face was priceless. I can still see his wide open eyes as I ran towards him.

 

[cyatheart]

Your wife is a coward.

 

[NoCreativity]

I've never seen a car theft.

Craziest thing I ever saw in person. I was sitting at red light by one of the on ramps on 235 in Des Moines. It's summer so I have my windows down. I hear someone scream, look over and this guy punches this woman in his passenger seat right in the face and knocks her completely out cold.

I'm sitting there in shock trying to process it, guy sees that I'm a witness and starts yelling expletives at me, drives off and blows right through the red light so he was gone before I even had a chance to do anything.

 

[NorthCyd]

Nope. Just want criminal d~bags to stop being criminal d-bags. And from what I learned today, the police aren’t going to do anything about that.

How do you know police wouldn't do anything? Where do you live, LA?

 

[BoomerClone]

How do you know police wouldn't do anything? Where do you live, LA?

Don’t live but work in Durham, NC. Trust me. It took 20 minutes for a single overwhelmed officer to arrive. This case is not moving beyond today.

 

[NWICY]

So. I had a very crazy morning. I work at a company that has a gated entry but we also rent space from the building directly across the street from us. I manage the rented space.

I pulled into the parking lot at the rented, non-gated, site at around 11:20AM. My wife called me as I was pulling in. I was talking to her as I sat in my truck in the parking lot. I heard a car alarm go off. Didn’t think much of it. And a few seconds later I see someone trying to break into the car parked directly in front of me.

This is where my decision making and my actions following are being questioned.

Here is what I did. I said to my wife, mid-sentence, thar I have to go. Someone is breaking into a car right by me. I threw the phone down (still connected) and ran after the guy. I was so close to getting him but a car was waiting and he hopped in and they peeled off. I never saw the licenses plate and only got a description of the car and the guy but not the get away driver.

Long story short, 6 cars had windows busted and I stoped him mid act on the 7th. Cops came and I gave my statement, talked to security for the business, and was eventually told “the investigators will call you if they need to”. I’m sure I’ll never hear anything.

But, I am now in the doghouse with the wife. She thinks it was extremely reckless and I could have been killed. I see her point but I also know I would do the same thing again. I’m not mad that I chased the guy, I’m mad that I didn’t catch him. I guess my thought is that if no one actually stands up to people like this than nothing will ever change.

You did right, the only better thing would have been to run them over with your car.

 

[BoomerClone]

Also. I really don’t know what these guys were trying to gain. I’m guessing they had very specific things they were looking for because every vehicle owner said nothing was stolen. One guy even said he had a dollar bill sitting in his passenger seat and it was still there. So they just busted windows for no damn reason.

 

[NorthCyd]

Don’t live but work in Durham, NC. Trust me. It took 20 minutes for a single overwhelmed officer to arrive. This case is not moving beyond today.

Well, that does change my opinion on calling the cops, or at least the chance of them catching the guys doing it. I've had to call the cops a couple of times in the DSM metro and the response time was minutes.

 

[BryceC]

You felt bad about turning in people robbing you?

It was a young person and I didn’t want a bad decision to hurt them long term.

 

[NWICY]

Many years ago, I drove by a car that clipped a parked car pretty good that was parked in the street. I stopped to make sure they were ok and the driver told me that he was fine and just wasn't paying attention and had already called the police.
Didn't feel right as I drove away so I turned at the next block to go back but as soon as I was out of sight, he drove off. I called 911 and "tailed" him with a play by play of every turn for about 10 minutes until the cops showed up and took over.
It was pretty exciting until I got home and told my wife that I was in hot pursuit with our 4/5 year old sleeping in their car seat...

Meh you were following it's not like you put your kid at risk. I did a similar thing a few yrs back minus the kid. A old lady sideswipped a mini van, so called the cops and followed along till they caught up.

 

[FallOf81]

Chief of police in my community told me that if our car in our driveway is being broken into just call 911. DO NOT approach them even with a gun. They are all armed, teens, no concern for life, and they will mow you down in gunfire. This is an Ankeny like community in IL about 45 minutes from downtown St Louis. So that's that.
Now that said .... if they are in my house, I'll happily unload The Judge on them.

 

[ricochet]

He had no clue I was there. The total look of surprise on his face was priceless. I can still see his wide open eyes as I ran towards him.

So what were you going to do if you caught him? Get in a fist fight or worse if he had any kind of weapon? I assume he wasn’t breaking car windows with his bare hands so what if he starts swinging whatever he had at your head? What if the driver of the car jumps in do you think you could fight both of them and detain them long enough for the police to arrive, which took 20 minutes? I know me as an almost 60 year old man who has never been in a street fight isn’t going to go after them like I’m Batman or something. I think you were probably lucky they took off.

 

[BoomerClone]

It was a young person and I didn’t want a bad decision to hurt them long term.

I would have pressed charges. I bet that young person never stopped their illegal behavior.

 

[BoomerClone]

So what were you going to do if you caught him? Get in a fist fight or worse if he had any kind of weapon? I assume he wasn’t breaking car windows with his bare hands so what if he starts swinging whatever he had at your head? What if the driver of the car jumps in do you think you could fight both of them and detain them long enough for the police to arrive, which took 20 minutes? I know me as an almost 60 year old man who has never been in a street fight isn’t going to go after them like I’m Batman or something. I think you were probably lucky they took off.

‍i don’t know. I guess I’ll never know how it would have played out. In my mind at the time, I was going to tackle the punk and make sure justice was served.

 

[BoomerClone]

Also, in case anyone is wondering, wife is still upset. I guess telling her that I didn’t regret chasing the guy but I did regret not catching him was not right thing to say.

 

[CyCoug]

It probably was reckless, but how often are you going to encounter that? Maybe reassure your wife if it happens again you’ll step back.

On an unrelated note, one time I was minding my own business at Lake LaVerne on the Iowa State campus.

This big guy came running by and jumped in the lake and tried to swim/slosh the other side. He was followed by two guys in suits.

They tacked him and handcuffed him when he got to the other side. I would love to know what that was all about.

 

[Helser 83]

Didn't read all 5 pages of this, but now days I agree with your wife, so many things go on every day that turn out so badly for all the wrong reasons. 20 years ago I would have reacted like you, now not so much. And yes, it's very very sad.

 

[BryceC]

I would have pressed charges. I bet that young person never stopped their illegal behavior.

We did end up pressing charges but I never felt good about it.

No guarantee they changed their behavior either way.