(no subject)
Nov. 8th, 2006 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got to spend some time today at a crime scene.
Someone broke into TA13 and tossed the place. I got a phone call from Bunny (neighbor), who said that the air conditioner up in 13 wasn't sitting in the window right. She wanted me to take a look at it, so I did. When I got there, the door was standing two inches open, so I pushed it wider and hollered for someone. When there was no answer, I called 911 and got myself a police officer because there was no freaking way I was going to walk into an apartment that had been tossed without a police there to see me not-stealing-things. (It is practially impossible to call the police directly about a non-emergency situation like this. You have to dial fucking 911 no matter if your problem is a real emergency or not. It was urgent, but not urgent like a masked gunman waving a firearm around in a preschool or anything. I thought 911 was only for urgent but apparently 911 is for every situation in which you might want a police in a reasonable and timely fashion.)
The police showed up in a reasonable amount of time, which was nice. We walked into the apartment. The television was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, which was our first clue that the place had been tossed. The tenant is a very neat elderly man who lives alone. His place is normally immaculate so it was really easy to see what was out of place. (My house is a lot harder to read because I'm a total slob.) The police walked around and I sort of tagged after, with my hands firmly in my pockets so's to not-touch anything important.
The criminal(s) had eaten snack granola bars belonging to the tenant. There were wrappers in the kitchen sink and in the toilet. There is absolutely no way that Tenant left those wrappers there. None. He'd as soon have left the house naked as left wrappers in the sink or in the toilet.
The criminal(s) had taken his change. He saved change (the police said a lot of depression-era people do) in jars and the empty jars were sitting on the bed with their lids next to them.
The lockboxes (two) belonging to Tenant had been found. I think they were in the cupboards, hidden behind his snacky smores boxes. I think this because his snacks (wheat thins and granola bars and stuff) were untidily stuffed in the microwave and, again, there is NO WAY that he'd have left things like that. Plus, the cupboards were stark empty on three shelves and contained super-orderly (by height, damn it) cereal boxes on the other shelf.
Anyway, the whole thing was very CSI (I'm guessing -- I don't actually watch CSI). The police took my name and address and phone and social security number and named (without DNA or anything) the same suspects I'd come up with on my own..
Someone broke into TA13 and tossed the place. I got a phone call from Bunny (neighbor), who said that the air conditioner up in 13 wasn't sitting in the window right. She wanted me to take a look at it, so I did. When I got there, the door was standing two inches open, so I pushed it wider and hollered for someone. When there was no answer, I called 911 and got myself a police officer because there was no freaking way I was going to walk into an apartment that had been tossed without a police there to see me not-stealing-things. (It is practially impossible to call the police directly about a non-emergency situation like this. You have to dial fucking 911 no matter if your problem is a real emergency or not. It was urgent, but not urgent like a masked gunman waving a firearm around in a preschool or anything. I thought 911 was only for urgent but apparently 911 is for every situation in which you might want a police in a reasonable and timely fashion.)
The police showed up in a reasonable amount of time, which was nice. We walked into the apartment. The television was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, which was our first clue that the place had been tossed. The tenant is a very neat elderly man who lives alone. His place is normally immaculate so it was really easy to see what was out of place. (My house is a lot harder to read because I'm a total slob.) The police walked around and I sort of tagged after, with my hands firmly in my pockets so's to not-touch anything important.
The criminal(s) had eaten snack granola bars belonging to the tenant. There were wrappers in the kitchen sink and in the toilet. There is absolutely no way that Tenant left those wrappers there. None. He'd as soon have left the house naked as left wrappers in the sink or in the toilet.
The criminal(s) had taken his change. He saved change (the police said a lot of depression-era people do) in jars and the empty jars were sitting on the bed with their lids next to them.
The lockboxes (two) belonging to Tenant had been found. I think they were in the cupboards, hidden behind his snacky smores boxes. I think this because his snacks (wheat thins and granola bars and stuff) were untidily stuffed in the microwave and, again, there is NO WAY that he'd have left things like that. Plus, the cupboards were stark empty on three shelves and contained super-orderly (by height, damn it) cereal boxes on the other shelf.
Anyway, the whole thing was very CSI (I'm guessing -- I don't actually watch CSI). The police took my name and address and phone and social security number and named (without DNA or anything) the same suspects I'd come up with on my own..
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 05:43 am (UTC)I bet we both have the same suspect in mind.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 11:48 am (UTC)Interestingly, I am not sure that Prime Suspect did the job. His mother (who lives next door to the victim) told the cops that he was at work at the time of the breaking-n-entering. Because that's way easy for the cops to check, I think he probably *was* at work at the time.
However, it is my opinion and the police opinion that if Prime Suspect didn't participate directly, he had a hand in planning and letting the actual thieves know when the tenant wasn't home. Prime Suspect was seen running with a Known Heroin Dealer (surprise!) who is related to another of our tenants in that building and we rather think that he might have had something to do with it. The police said they'd try to bring in Known Heroin Dealer for questioning.
Interestingly, Prime Suspect's mother called the office later that day to... I dunno... chat me up and put in a good word for her son. It's weird when you get a phone call and you know what the purpose of the phone call is and so does the caller but nobody is willing to admit it. She was all he's not like that and I didn't bother to correct her. What would be the point?
I don't mind Prime Suspect's mother. She's not a bad tenant, is quiet and nondisruptive, and goes along raising her granddaughters (her daughter, the mother, is in jail) without too much trouble. Mostly we get the rent in a timely fashion. However, she lets Prime Suspect live there. (She claims he's living with his girlfriend, but I don't buy that.) We may have to throw her ass out if we can't split Prime Suspect off of her and get rid of him. I can't have my other tenants being stolen from and this is the second time that Elderly Fellow's apartment has been knocked over.
The first time the place was hit, a couple of months ago, Elderly Fellow accused the guy what works for us. (I swear honest to dog that there is absolutely no freaking way our employee would steal tenant stuff. None.) Elderly Fellow's family changed the locks and didn't give us copies so that we and our employees would not be able to steal Elderly Fellow's stuff anymore. Whatever.
It was weird that the police needed all sorts of personal information from me. They also asked all kinds of questions like how I knew Elderly Fellow (d'oh, he's my tenant) and how I found out that the apartment had been robbed (Bunny called, as I said) and if I'd been in the place before the police arrived (No, I stopped at the front door when the door was standing open and I called for if anyone was inside. When there wasn't any answer and I could see the television sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, I called 911 and waited for a police because I figured that was better than going in and rooting all through their crime scene.). Finally, I was like, "Police, it wasn't me what stole from Elderly Fellow. If I was going to steal, I'd steal from people what gots actual money. Elderly Fellow does not have anything worth stealing."
no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 05:44 pm (UTC)If there have been (and even if there haven't been), Elderly Fellow's family might decide the building is unsafe for him and pressure him to live elsewhere.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 08:24 pm (UTC)