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How a fed up carpenter found his stolen power tools — and 15,000 others
(www.washingtonpost.com)
this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
316 points (98.8% liked)
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The most surprising part of this is they contacted the police department who obtained a warrant and actually helped them!!!
The value of the items was either high enough to meet whatever internal threshold they have for opening an investigation or they were already aware of organized tool theft rings in the area.
That, or they were bored and said "Fuck it, let's do it".
I wish they'd do that instead of stupid speed traps.
Just this morning on my way to work, I was behind a cop, and they went 30-35mph in a 25 (everyone goes 35-ish on that road, it's very wide). I know because I was following their speed, noticed I was over, then slowed down. They pulled over, then in my rear view mirror I saw their lights go on and they pulled someone over like 3 cars behind me who couldn't have been going more than 35mph.
How does that benefit anyone? I'd much prefer they "waste" time tracking down theft like this instead of taking down hardened speeding criminals on roads where the speed limit should probably be adjusted (it's residential, but it's one of the few connector roads and has tons of space).
But.... Theft is hard!
Speed traps I can sit on my ass, get up every 20 minutes and get a bonus for how much revenue I brought in...
Because that's not a speed trap, it's a rolling checkpoint for drugs, guns, and warrants.
I highly doubt that. This was in a relatively low crime part of town, in a city with very low crime (about half the national average), and this particular road would only be used by local residents. It's somewhat popular because it's the only thru road for a mile or so in either direction with a school and a park, but there's also just houses for a mile or so in either direction.
Traffic is relatively low, the street is wide (one lane in either direction, but there's room for two), pedestrians are rare (everyone drives), etc. So most people seem to go 35 despite it being a 25 zone (there's a speed check sign at one end).
If they're looking for drugs or warrants, they'd have better luck elsewhere. We're a constitutional carry state (no permit needed to conceal carry), so guns are fairly common and totally legal unless you're a felon or a minor.
This was on the last day of the month, so I think they're just filling quotas.
Cops don't care that it's all locals. They don't see you as safe unless you're a cop too. And the very fact that they're working a road they can just keep pulling people on tells me they aren't looking for actual safety violations. They already use every stop to search as much as they can get away with. So when they're conducting stops back to back like that it's not a trap. They aren't waiting for a reckless driver. They're actually running a rolling check point, searching as many cars as they can.
Stop assuming good faith from cops, they are trained to lie to you and extract information. The only time a speeding stop is actually a speeding stop is when someone is going faster than the flow of traffic by a lot.
A speed trap is a revenue source. If the cops wanted to find drugs or something, they'd go to the poorer part of town. This was in a suburban part of town near a wealthy part of town, so they're not likely looking for drugs and whatnot, they're just trying to get some easy speeding fines.
Regardless, it's unhelpful. I've seen multiple people get pulled over there, and they are not driving recklessly at all. I know where the cops tend to hide, so fortunately I haven't gotten pulled over.
And no, I'm not assuming good faith, I'm just assuming they're trying to make some quota for the month, or maybe the officer is trying for a promotion or something. Regardless, it's stupid and I'd much rather they spend their time tracking down stolen bikes or something.
All the work was done and now they could announce a big bust with about an hours worth of effort.
Or the guy said if u guys don't, I will, and they were forced to actually do their jobs. I'd imagine probably more along those lines.
Or they had a few reports of missing tools and no leads when this guy shows up and says "I know where my tools are but you have to get them". Of course they will help him with the hope it pans out.
Nah, this is giving cops too much credit. People can have gps coordinates, video of crimes occuring, first and last names of thieves and plently of times cops do literally nothing past filing a report.
Yup. My buddy owned a hellcat. That’s a $90k car, with like 800 horsepower. It was stolen. He had an AirTag under the seat, giving him detailed location data. He was on the phone with 911, and they were refusing to do anything about it. Told him to come down to the station and file a police report.
Then he mentioned his handgun was under the seat. Cops were on the scene in less than 2 minutes, with guns drawn.
Leads!
I recently listened to a story of someone in Berlin tracking his lost bikes (yes plural) using air tags. The police helped him because they were genuinely interested in the new possibilities to actually find stolen bikes. Before they just had no real chance to track any of the stolen goods and therefore weren't able to help without relying on just heresay.