Why did I not call the police?

Kronos

Kronos

Kronos

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Joined
11 Nov 2009
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Edinburgh
am ashamed to say I have no idea.
The story is at around 5-5:30am this morning I heard an odd sound and being a nosey git that I am these days I got up to have a look out of the bedroom window. and spotted a toe rag who had pulled his VW Golf alongside a private hire taxi and had tanned the window looking for easy pickings I suppose.

My neighbour down the stairs had also heard something and had gone out to see what was happening. The guy heard the front door opening and took this as a signal to jump in his car and sped off. I caught a little of his number plate but not all.

And I went back to bed and it did not occur to me to phone the police. I did see the owner of the taxi later this morning and told him what I had seen. But I also said to him not much chance of the police investigating this, you'll get a crime number and that will be it.

I have just had visit by a young policeman wanting to take a statement and it was only when he asked me why I had not called the police when it happened I realised I just did not have a justifiable answer. OK I can make excuses I live in an area where drugs are pretty rife and you do get the odd bit of bother not that I thought this was drug related. This looked opportunistic but I did not call the police about it when there was a better chance of catching the guy and I am quite shocked now.
 
You saw a neighbours car being burgled, had a description of the guy and a partial plate, and you didn't phone the police?
 
The Police probably wouldn't have done anything anyway. When my motor was done in a similar manner (window smashed, rifled through and few bits and bobs half-inched) they came out, looked at the broken window and just took a statement so they could give me the crime number. Then they were on their merry way. Even though we gave them a good description of the scrote responsible, they didn't even bother to try and investigate.
 
Malevolence said:
The Police probably wouldn't have done anything anyway. When my motor was done in a similar manner (window smashed, rifled through and few bits and bobs half-inched) they came out, looked at the broken window and just took a statement so they could give me the crime number. Then they were on their merry way. Even though we gave them a good description of the scrote responsible, they didn't even bother to try and investigate.
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Nonsense.
It may seem like that. But in my old area. After so many reports they put dummy cars put and caught a fair few.

It's always worth reporting stuff, so they can target certain areas. If they don't know it's happening there's nothing they can do.
 
Tanned ?

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Kronos said:
and spotted a toe rag who had pulled his VW Golf alongside a private hire taxi and had tanned the window looking for easy pickings I suppose.
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I'm confused... 'tanned'?

Kronos said:
The guy heard the front door opening and took this as a signal to jump in his car and sped off. I caught a little of his number plate but not all.
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So he left his own VW car at the scene?
 
Glaucus said:
Nonsense.
It may seem like that. But in my old area. After so many reports they put dummy cars put and caught a fair few.

It's always worth reporting stuff, so they can target certain areas. If they don't know it's happening there's nothing they can do.
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Exactly this.

Imagine that happening to you and then someone else coming up to you later saying "not much chance of the police catching them but anyway here's half the licence plate number and the type of car..oh nah I didn't bother calling the police."
 
Longbow said:
I'm confused... 'tanned'?
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Tanned a window is a Scottish (or perhaps even just Edinburgh) phrase to say that someone broke a window. I haven't heard it in years but it's nice to be reminded of it.

As for the original question - if you don't know then the rest of us don't have much chance of answering. A charitable interpretation might be that at that time of night you weren't thinking clearly but that's about the best I can come up with.
 
Glaucus said:
I would say it isn't, there wasn't a crime in progress, just a suspected scouting.
Local police can always escalate it if needed.
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err he'd broken the car window?

btw try phoning 101 some time i had to wait on hold for 15 minutes to get an answer last time i tried only to be told the officer i was after had moved onto night shift (the day after leaving a voice mail asking to call him back.)
 
If it's anything like the estate where I grew up on then nothing would get done and they'd even look annoyed with you. Just depends if your local community PCs actually give a ****.

EDIT: Tanned = smashed? Well in that case could've at least phone 101.
 
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