Funny thing happened to me yesterday. Was going to go food shopping with the wife, so we walked down the block to our car to find that it had gone missing. Thinking that I just forgot where I had parked it last, we walked about a 6 block radius looking for it. After realizing that it was gone, we checked our plate number on line to see if it had been towed or ticketed for some strange reason. No dice, so we call our local precinct to file a report. First weird thing is that they tell me to call 911 to report it stolen. I thought that was for emergencies only?
Anyway, call 911, they say they'll send someone as soon as possible, and about an hour or so later (~230PM), a couple of cops show up and start grilling us about who has access to the keys, when was the last time we saw it, etc., etc., etc. We explain that we don't really drive around to much, during the week, the only time we get in the car is when we need to go shopping or to move it for alternate-side parking. So they keep asking about who had the keys and why was there no broken glass anywhere near where the car was supposedly parked. I figured they were asking because we may have been trying to scam the insurance co. or something, because after we explained to them that it's kind of a POS and we don't even have insurance for theft, they seemed to lighten up a bit. After about an hour of filling out paperwork and what not, they leave and we figure the car is gone for good.
About 10 PM, we hear someone buzzing every apartment in the building and pounding on the front door. I go downstairs to see who it is (our intercom is broken) and it's the two cops and they don't look too happy. I open the door
Me Hey officers, how's it going?
Cop #1 Go get your girlfriend.
That was it. No, "good news we found your car." No, "hey how's it going?" Anyway, I go upstairs, tell my wife to get dressed and go back downstairs. I ask what's going on and cop 1 tells me they found the car. I say, "great!" but then he gets into the details
- it's a few blocks away
- there's a beer bottle on the top of the car
- the locks weren't tampered with
- doesn't look like they had to hotwire the car
So while I'm waiting for my wife to come downstairs, they take turns asking me if I was driving drunk. First off, I'm not going to admit that hey, maybe I was drinking and ditched our car (I wasn't and didn't). But they were positive this is what happened.
My wife gets downstairs and they give her the same treatment. After a few minutes of that, they tell us where the car is and say ok you can go pick it up. Then they take off. We gathered our stuff together and start walking a few blocks to the car. When we get there, we find the cops sitting around the car and chatting with another unit. We're kind of thinking, "thanks for the lift" but we get over it and walk toward the car.
While my wife goes to check it out, one of the officers is writing some information on the back of a book (my name, my wife's name, my dob, the plate number of the car) and then hands it to me to sign it. I ask him what do I need to sign this for, and he tells me it's a release. I scanned the sheet and there's nothing on there other than the information listed above. In my mind, I said fuck it and signed the sheet. Then I start walking over to the car. It's been completely rooted through, I had a golf club in the trunk that ended up in the front passenger seat, the glove box is ransaked. Whoever took it left the lights on so the battery is dead and the topper is, it's in the middle of a 2-way street. How no one called it in or noticed it is beyond me. My wife says she'll stay with the car while I go get our battery booster (the cops of course, don't offer to jump the car or maybe stay with my wife while I go get the booster, which was public service at its best) so I ran back to the house, grabbed the booster, and ran back up. I don't live in the worst neighborhood or anything, but like I said, the car was in the middle of the street, no power to light the hazards, and it was on an avenue, not a side-street, so I felt a little compelled to rush back. I'm not saying the cops weren't right to be a little suspicious (We couldn't believe any of this was going on), but they were kind of being dicks about it.
Anyway, that was my crazy Sunday. Thanks for reading, and thanks to the NYPD for showing some
CPR[=http//www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pap/papqap.html#CPR_Unit]CPR