Stealing ok if you give it back?

[trax1]

As far as the theft at the college is concerned did your cousin really contact the police or was it some security agency that is pulling some kind of security on the campus? I think you need to have your cousin call the metro PD and file a report. She will need to say she is interested in prosecuting the thief. If she says that she is NOT interested in prosecution save your time. There is no reason to take a report then. They don't take reports for the penmanship exercise. Lots of folks like to complain but when it comes to standing up for your statements in court it changes.

No it was Chicago PD, I know she would have pressed charges, she was pissed about it, and she was mad about the fact that they told her there was nothing they could do about it because she gave it back & didn't take anything out of it.

[maddafinga]

Sounds like your ex sold the detectives a line of crap about the car and if it was really stolen or that perhaps you might have been trying an insurance scam.

Well like I said, it was a cheap and somewhat crappy car, so we only had liability insurance on it, so no real possibility of a scam there.  I don't remember ever talking to any actual detectives though, just patrol officers.  I really can't say what she told anyone, just what she told me. 

I had the feeling at the time, and still do today feel however that basically they saw that we didn't have much money, and just sort of decided that we weren't much worth messing with, and that we should just deal with it however we could.  I could be totally wrong, and she might have fed them a complete line of bs, or for that matter, been somehow involved, I don't have any way of knowing that.  I didn't suspect that at the time though at all.  What I do know is that any dealings I had with the police all left a bad feeling in my mouth, and I felt like I got no help at all from them. 

I'm over it now though 

[SirFrancis]

Trax1

"when the cops came they told her there was nothing they could do about it because the girl was 17" 

I thought the minimum ages at which children may be charged with a criminal offense in the US is between 6 and 12??

But maybe I am wrong and this fact sheet gives the answer I don´t see -> http://www.jjustice.org/pdf/SB2275%20Fact%20Sheet%20Nov%2008.pdf

Regards

[Beefcake]

Isn't there a 12yrd boy somewhere facing life in prison?

[danny76]

My cousin works for a college in the student finance dept., yesterday she had a student in her office that she was helping, she left the office for a few minutes to get something, she came back gave the student some paperwork & she left, a few minutes later she went to get her brush out of her purse & noticed it was open, her wallet was gone, she went and got her boss and they tried to find her, they saw her going down a staircase & yelled for her to stop, she took off running & they lost her, well apparently knowing she was caught the girl called her student rep and told them where they could find the wallet & that nothing was taken out of it, she said something like she just took it to see how far she could get with it.  So they went & found it and everything was there, but here the even more messed up part that I don't get, when the cops came they told her there was nothing they could do about it because the girl was 17 and she gave it back with nothing missing, so basically this say that as long as your underage & steal something, if you think your gonna get caught just give it back & your ok, at least the school told the girl she can no longer be a student at the school.

Not got much idea about US law, but i was a UK police officer for 6 years, the law regarding theft (theft act 1968) states that theft is "dishonestly appropriating property belonging to another with the intention to permanently deprive the other of it"

In other words, if you're neighbour comes and takes your car off your drive, and has an honest belief that you would have given permission were you there, he commits no offence. If he takes your wallet full of cash but has no intention of taking either the wallet or the cash, and can convince a court he had no intention, then he commits no crime.

[dkff49]

Sounds like your ex sold the detectives a line of crap about the car and if it was really stolen or that perhaps you might have been trying an insurance scam.

Probable doing the investigating officer and she was the one that stole all those other items.

I am not really trying to be ignorant but something sounds real fishy here and I would believe that there was something to this effect going on than the officer covering up for some kid in this fashion especially with damage to the car and other stolen property involved.

[trax1]

Yeah I think it was due to the fact that right after they saw her and she ran she called her student rep and said she just wanted to see how far she could get with it, and told them where it was & nothing was missing, and with her being 17 it could be looked at as a prank, but obviously she made up the whole thing up only because when they tried to stop her she ran, had they not seen her & she ran I'm sure she just would have denied taking it.

[4440]

Back in the day when I was young and dumb, Cops tended to let you get away with a lotta things they weren't supposed to.

Here is a good one for you, and I was one of the participants.

Big party out at an abandoned Gravel Pit, Cops find out and come and "arrest" us all. Was about 30 of us, so after chasing us around the gravel pit for a while, they tell us to get into our cars and follow them back to the cop shop. Course we are all half lit, booze that is, and off to the town courthouse at about 1AM. We get there and they make us unload the keg and carry it in, then off to sit in the courtroom while they do paper work and get ready to call parents.

Then the real party starts... singing, dancing, and of course playing with the judges gavel. By the end of the night, it was screw it, we will just mail your parents the papers and get the heck out.

So off we all went to drive our drunk little selves on home. Only bummer was they wouldn't give the Keg back cause they said they kept those for police parties.

23yrs later, I still find it comical, but I sure as heck wouldn't want them to let my kid out the door if he was caught.