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BadNick · 06-30-2009, 11:54 AM

Fortunately, I've only been ripped off via petty crime a couple times in my life...and I'm 60yo now, so I think that's not too bad.

Back when I was growing up in an inner-city blue collar area of Phila, I'm sure there were times when I was "bypassed" by the local petty thieves/drug addicts because they knew who I was and who I hung around with. So they hit the next available easy target instead ...except once and I suspect somebody I knew better may have done this theft: I left my old bomb car parked down the street and one day I came out and it was gone. I only paid $100 for it so no big deal and I wanted a newer car anyway. But about a month later I found the car parked in about the same spot from where it was taken, with no damage. I guess somebody just wanted to borrow it for a while.
A couple years later, the replacement car was stolen as I was in one of my hangout restaurants on Penn's campus downtown Phila. I came out after a few hours and first thought I forgot where I parked, but then after some searching and remembering I concluded the car was stolen. I reported it to the police and they took all the info as required. A couple weeks later, one very early morning my buddy calls me to say he found my car and he's parked near it now, and I should come down to 16th & South where it's parked. So I get my gf to drive me down there, by now the cops are all around, they take the info, look at my documents, and tell me I can take the car home. Luckily, no damage since I really like this car, and only a few joints were missing from the glove compartment...I neglected to report that loss to the police. So two weeks later I'm on my way home in this car, it's late after the bars closed so past 2am, my brother is in the car with me. After leaving downtown, I'm about 15 minutes away near home and stopped at a traffic light when I hear a tap on my driver's side window and look out to see a guy in jeans and a sweatshirt pointing a .38 at my face! Within the fractions of a second I see this, out of the corner of my eye I also notice another guy coming up the other side of the car, as well as an obvious unmarked police car behind me...so that had a bit of a subduing effect on the adreniline rush I was having and the total panic attack I might have otherwise felt. I open the window and he yells "get out of the car with your hands up!...you're driving a stolen vehicle" and as my door opens he sort of throws me up against the car. In my freaked out near panic I'm now cursing at him calling him a stupid frickin' idiot, that this is my car and can prove it. So I show him the owners card/registration and my driver's license and it's starting to sink into his head that this might be my car. Later, they admitted that they had a 2 week old "hot sheet" with my car listed on it and they apologized...I imagined all sorts of alternative endings to this story, like me panicing when I saw the gun, hitting the gas, and him shooting me for driving my own car.

A couple years later when I lived in a nice apartment in downtown Phila on the second floor of a gorgeous old brownstone row house, I had a parking spot in a locked yard behind the house; but one night somebody got in there anyway and rifled through my car looking for stuff; nothing was broken and I had nothing of value in the car, so no real loss, just a sense of being violated to some degree.

Another time I was visiting friends in NYC and left my car parked on 34th St. right up the block from their apartment and when I came out the small vent window of my car was broken and the stereo neatly removed with no other damage...thanks to the expert thieves who know how to do it right. The cops told me that happens at least 30 times a night in their district.

Wow, squeeeb's suggestion about the s/n's plays a role in another one of my stories. My younger son's bicycle was stolen a couple years ago. We wrote it off since recovery of such items almost never happens. Then over a year later, one Saturday I get a call from my son saying he's at the local police station and I should come down since he and his buddies found his old bike. It turns out they saw a kid riding it and were sure it was my son's old bike, so they sent the fastest running buddy to follow the kid on the bike...the kid on the bike was a few years older than my son and his friends. So after a few blocks the kid on the bike stops to confront the buddy running after him and asks what's up. The runner buddy doesn't approach too close, but tells the kid on the bike that they have the cops coming after him since he's on a stolen bike, and by now he recognizes the kid and tells him "and don't try to run away I know who you are". So both kids go back to the police station with the bike...I think this does suggest that the kid on the bike may have told the truth when he said he bought the bike from another kid for $40. So I arrive at the police station, pull out the receipts for this bike and another I bought at the same time from my daughter's bike shop, the shop even told me to save these receipts and I uncharacteristically did so. So we flip the bike over and there are the same serial numbers as on the receipt. The cop says he has no choice but to confiscate the bike from the kid and give it back to me...I'm not sure that's legally correct, but it was fair in my eyes. So the cop also calls the boy's mother since he has to report the police interaction with this minor, but the mom refuses to come to the police station and is just pissed off about the whole thing. Anyway, even though it was gone for way over a year, we got this bike back.

In any case, I can't fully accept the mentality of "oh well, they're only replaceable material things of no significant value in life". There is a sense of someone violating my privacy and boundaries and showing no respect for another person and that pisses me off.

06-30-2009, 11:54 AM	#4 (permalink)
BadNick Riding the Ocean Spray Location: S.E. PA in U Sofa	Fortunately, I've only been ripped off via petty crime a couple times in my life...and I'm 60yo now, so I think that's not too bad. Back when I was growing up in an inner-city blue collar area of Phila, I'm sure there were times when I was "bypassed" by the local petty thieves/drug addicts because they knew who I was and who I hung around with. So they hit the next available easy target instead ...except once and I suspect somebody I knew better may have done this theft: I left my old bomb car parked down the street and one day I came out and it was gone. I only paid $100 for it so no big deal and I wanted a newer car anyway. But about a month later I found the car parked in about the same spot from where it was taken, with no damage. I guess somebody just wanted to borrow it for a while. A couple years later, the replacement car was stolen as I was in one of my hangout restaurants on Penn's campus downtown Phila. I came out after a few hours and first thought I forgot where I parked, but then after some searching and remembering I concluded the car was stolen. I reported it to the police and they took all the info as required. A couple weeks later, one very early morning my buddy calls me to say he found my car and he's parked near it now, and I should come down to 16th & South where it's parked. So I get my gf to drive me down there, by now the cops are all around, they take the info, look at my documents, and tell me I can take the car home. Luckily, no damage since I really like this car, and only a few joints were missing from the glove compartment...I neglected to report that loss to the police. So two weeks later I'm on my way home in this car, it's late after the bars closed so past 2am, my brother is in the car with me. After leaving downtown, I'm about 15 minutes away near home and stopped at a traffic light when I hear a tap on my driver's side window and look out to see a guy in jeans and a sweatshirt pointing a .38 at my face! Within the fractions of a second I see this, out of the corner of my eye I also notice another guy coming up the other side of the car, as well as an obvious unmarked police car behind me...so that had a bit of a subduing effect on the adreniline rush I was having and the total panic attack I might have otherwise felt. I open the window and he yells "get out of the car with your hands up!...you're driving a stolen vehicle" and as my door opens he sort of throws me up against the car. In my freaked out near panic I'm now cursing at him calling him a stupid frickin' idiot, that this is my car and can prove it. So I show him the owners card/registration and my driver's license and it's starting to sink into his head that this might be my car. Later, they admitted that they had a 2 week old "hot sheet" with my car listed on it and they apologized...I imagined all sorts of alternative endings to this story, like me panicing when I saw the gun, hitting the gas, and him shooting me for driving my own car. A couple years later when I lived in a nice apartment in downtown Phila on the second floor of a gorgeous old brownstone row house, I had a parking spot in a locked yard behind the house; but one night somebody got in there anyway and rifled through my car looking for stuff; nothing was broken and I had nothing of value in the car, so no real loss, just a sense of being violated to some degree. Another time I was visiting friends in NYC and left my car parked on 34th St. right up the block from their apartment and when I came out the small vent window of my car was broken and the stereo neatly removed with no other damage...thanks to the expert thieves who know how to do it right. The cops told me that happens at least 30 times a night in their district. Wow, squeeeb's suggestion about the s/n's plays a role in another one of my stories. My younger son's bicycle was stolen a couple years ago. We wrote it off since recovery of such items almost never happens. Then over a year later, one Saturday I get a call from my son saying he's at the local police station and I should come down since he and his buddies found his old bike. It turns out they saw a kid riding it and were sure it was my son's old bike, so they sent the fastest running buddy to follow the kid on the bike...the kid on the bike was a few years older than my son and his friends. So after a few blocks the kid on the bike stops to confront the buddy running after him and asks what's up. The runner buddy doesn't approach too close, but tells the kid on the bike that they have the cops coming after him since he's on a stolen bike, and by now he recognizes the kid and tells him "and don't try to run away I know who you are". So both kids go back to the police station with the bike...I think this does suggest that the kid on the bike may have told the truth when he said he bought the bike from another kid for $40. So I arrive at the police station, pull out the receipts for this bike and another I bought at the same time from my daughter's bike shop, the shop even told me to save these receipts and I uncharacteristically did so. So we flip the bike over and there are the same serial numbers as on the receipt. The cop says he has no choice but to confiscate the bike from the kid and give it back to me...I'm not sure that's legally correct, but it was fair in my eyes. So the cop also calls the boy's mother since he has to report the police interaction with this minor, but the mom refuses to come to the police station and is just pissed off about the whole thing. Anyway, even though it was gone for way over a year, we got this bike back. In any case, I can't fully accept the mentality of "oh well, they're only replaceable material things of no significant value in life". There is a sense of someone violating my privacy and boundaries and showing no respect for another person and that pisses me off.