Twayne,

Which bits "are not right"? Do you have any experience with inner city
non-violent theft? Why do you think you know more about this situation than
I do?

No-one has said the police are ignoring it - most of the information I've
given is because the police have pursued it. I can guarantee you the police
would have "ignored" it had we not found the thief. The solution is not the
police, it is insurance (which equates to us paying for thieves to steal our
goods).

Delivering a small claims summons is a scary idea (plus I don't know what
the thief looks like) and you are very naive if you think the guy would show
up to court. So even if the court agrees with me what use is it? Where is
this "preponderance" of evidence? All I have is what the police have told me
- plus I know that he sold some of the stolen goods (I don't know what he did
with the PC). The detective just laughed when I suggested this.

The cost of the PC is written off - the time to actually get it back has
come and gone - if the police had acted immediately with real determination
(or we had taken matters into our own hands) maybe the PC would have still
been with the thief, now it is probably gone.

I've seen no evidence that the police are anxious about anything to do with
this case but I would not be surprised if in 6 months they inform us that the
thief was arrested (for some violent or drug crime) and none of our goods
were found.

Phil

"Twayne" wrote:

I don't know; something's not right with this story. Either you just
don't want to bother and want a chance to vent or the story's conflicts,
and each additional piece being worse than the last dont' reflect
reality. As many offenses as there are there, I can't imagine a police
agency ignoring it nor your unwillingness to pursue it in a small claims
court for replacement cost. I've used the small claims and things just
do not grind to a halt because a summons has to be delivered. Cripes,
you even know where the guy lives, you said, so delivering a summons is
a LOT easier than one whose whereabouts are unknown. You even seem to
know what some of his community ties are, so ... .
I've used small claims before and just like they show on TV, all you
need is a preponderance of the evidence, which is easy enough with a
computer, and you win. Unless of course you didn't obtain the computer
yourelf by legitimate means, or the sotware on it is pirated; then it
could turn on you if it were broughtup, but you'd still win your case I
bet.

Time to just write it off from the sound of things, and let the guy go
ahead and steal a better one from someone else (you hope) when this one
doesn't fit the bill anymore. If he's so well known to the cops, they'd
be anxious to have a reasonj to put him away.