Bad Ending to a Good Easter

Bird · Apr 21, 2003

Hope everyone had a good Easter. We brought my Mother from the nursing home to our apartment and had our kids, grandkids, and my brothers here for dinner. Beautiful weather and a good Easter.

However, I’ve had a bit of a head cold lately. So I went to bed about 9 p.m. last night, then woke up about 2 a.m. coughing and decided to get up awhile; just in time to notice a shadow on the window blinds. I looked out to see a man walk by and around the building out of sight. I went into the living room to be able to see out better just in time to see another man carrying what appeared to be a large adjustable wrench walking in the same direction and out of sight. I also noticed a white Toyota minivan that I hadn’t seen before parked in front of our apartment and the right rear door not entirely closed. Now it’s not unusual for people and vehicles to come and go at all hours in an apartment complex of over 700 units, but this appeared a bit suspicious. So I walked out front, noted the license number on the minivan, then strolled around the corner of the building to where my own pickup was parked. No one around, but then I could barely see the shadowy figure of a person standing very still between two cars on the dark back row of the parking lot. I smoked a cigarette while that figure never moved, then walked back inside and looked out the window again just in time to see the minivan drive off. Something obviously ain’t right; so called 911. A marked police car arrived within two minutes and the officer and I walked back to where I had seen the person standing in the dark. There was an almost new Mitsubishi Eclipse with the driver’s window smashed; glass on the ground and in the driver’s seat, gear shift knob laying in the seat, glove box open, steering column severely damaged, etc. The officer said another squad car had the Toyota minivan stopped less than half a mile away.

This is great, right? Then the bad news. The owner of the Mitsubishi was found; absolutely nothing “missing” from the car; just a lot of damage. The two suspects had gloves in the minivan, so the prospects of finding fingerprints are dim. And this old man did not have his glasses on and it was too dark anyway for me to give any reasonable description of the two men I’d seen, much less be able to identify them if I saw them again. So they were fingerprinted, photographed, . . . and released. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Egon · Apr 21, 2003

Bird:

I disagree with you. I disagree with you very- very- MUCH.

It was a very good ending as you are still here to post of the experience.

When you were in Law Enforcement and were called to a scene as you have described what would you have advised the older individual to have done ???

Egon

MikePA · Apr 21, 2003

I agree with Egon. Two perps were caught, they know there's a concerned citizen in that complex, so, hopefully, they wont be back. If you hadn't gotten up, the damage to the car might have been worse.

So, tell us, what was it like being 'back in the saddle' again? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Bird · Apr 21, 2003

( what would you have advised the older individual to have done ? )

Oops, sounds like my wife; "Don't go out there, you might get hurt!" /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

MossRoad · Apr 21, 2003

Property damage stinks, even if it is not your stuff. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Hopefully the perps will learn a lesson about out your area, however, my guess is they will continue somewhere else.

Glad you are OK. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Gary_in_Indiana · Apr 21, 2003

"If you hadn't gotten up, the damage to the car might have been worse" 

Probably not. The car, however, would have been gone!

The reason there was damage to the steering column was that there was an effort to override the ignition lock and steering lock to start the car and drive it away.

That's the common method used by most car thieves today--smash the window, open the door and get in, break the cover off the steering column to expose the ignition and steering lock mechanisms and defeat them, start it with a screwdriver and drive it away. All in all, it will usually take under five minutes total.

Bird probably stopped them between the time they'd broken the window and steering column and when they would have gotten the thing started up. Good job!

One irony in this is that the police will likely not list this as an attempted vehicle theft. That looks bad. It will probably go down merely as vandalism, which can be written off as "kids" and looks far better when the Chamber of Commerce is marketing their community for new businesses, tourism or conventions. It's an interesting world in which we live, isn't it?

MikePA · Apr 21, 2003

"If you hadn't gotten up, the damage to the car might have been worse"
Probably not. The car, however, would have been gone!

What's worse than gone...to a chop shop. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Anonymous Poster · Apr 21, 2003

( So I walked out front,
but then I could barely see the shadowy figure of a person standing very still between two cars. I smoked a cigarette while that figure never moved, then walked back inside )
Bird, why didn't you call 911 first? You going outside, by yourself, were asking for trouble. The bad guys could have turned on you real easy and hurt you big time. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Remember were not as young as we used to be. I respect you wanting to help but boy it could have turned real ugly.

Bird · Apr 21, 2003

( why didn't you call 911 first? )

In hindsight, I can think of lots of things I'd have done differently, but at the time, before I walked out there, I really had no good reason to believe a crime was being committed. Unfortunately, it's not unusual for cars and people to come and go at all hours of the night, and I didn't even know for sure that the two guys had come from that minivan since I never saw them at the car. In fact, right after the first officer left and I came back inside, my wife came and told me two other males had been standing right by our patio; one of them talking on a cell phone, and then they walked off between some of the buildings. Of course, we still don't know whether they may or may not have been working with the two in the minivan (police never found those two). And while I was outside, I also saw two other residents standing just outside the breezeway at the other end of our building. They were just having a smoke and visiting.

( going outside, by yourself, were asking for trouble )

That's possible anytime you leave the house. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif But I also know that thieves are also usually cowards unless cornered, and I didn't have any intention of trying to arrest anyone. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif So since I didn't know what I might see, other than getting a license number, I didn't even wake my wife until she heard me come back in.

She fusses at me, too, but I tell her my life insurance premiums are paid up, so she doesn't have to worry. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It's big city life, folks, and it's different. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Hakim · Apr 21, 2003

Many on TBN know, but some don't that ...

our Most Esteemed Member Bird ... is a retired Police Captain.

Not that he was trying to "act the part" in any sense. But, he probably has more sense about how and why to take (or not take) actions in these kinds of circumstances.

Perhaps the best result no one will hear about --- that the criminals will know themselves and perhaps tell their cohorts, that Bird's particular apartment complex carries higher levels of tenant observation at odd hours of the night.

Bird is right, most criminals want NOTHING to do with any person while they are in the midst of their troublemaking behaviors.

Anyway, typically, Bird alwasy acts as the supreme "Good Citizen." Glad he's okay, and just telling a story of what "almost happened."