Somehow I read that as "burgers stole your TV" and as it turns out, might have been a better story for this woman to use.

Why did she even try to explain how the burglars got the TV out? Did she say she was there watching them?

It just seems a lot simpler if she just said burglars stole my TV and left the details to the imagination. I'm sure there was a legitimate way they could walked off with the TV if the woman managed to get the TV in the house in the first place. Never mind the stupidity of not storing the TV off location in case detectives look around.

AqueousBoy: Somehow I read that as "burgers stole your TV" and as it turns out, might have been a better story for this woman to use.

Robble robble robble.

I'm trying to figure out her motivation for reporting a theft in the first place. Was she planning to file an insurance claim? Was she trying to avoid the TV tax or whatever it is they have over there? Either way, the reward doesn't seem worth the risk.

I_Am_Weasel: I wonder what that translates to in American police-speak.

about 38 charges overlapping each other, some jail time, and a huge fine.

also serves probation so she has to pay a shiat ton on top of all that.

I want to live in place where I can get a "crises loan" when my T.V. is stolen.

Nice to see the police actually solving a crime...last time we reported a burglary, they came and took the report, then...nothing.

Turns out I was able to track down the 'robber' on my own...got my stuff back, and made sure the 'robber' would not be stealing from anyone else ever again. :-)

Police, they are good for what they are good for...which is....??? I got nothing.

She was issued with an £80 fixed-penalty fine for wasting police time.

That's awesome.

Gwyrddu: Why did she even try to explain how the burglars got the TV out? Did she say she was there watching them?

It just seems a lot simpler if she just said burglars stole my TV and left the details to the imagination. I'm sure there was a legitimate way they could walked off with the TV if the woman managed to get the TV in the house in the first place. Never mind the stupidity of not storing the TV off location in case detectives look around.

I believe you have to be able to demonstrate forced entry for insurance purposes. Also, maybe there's a security camera that would have caught someone coming in the main entrance? DNRTFA....

CJHardin: I_Am_Weasel: "She was lucky. She was a woman in her 40s, of previous good character and that's why she wasn't arrested for perverting the course of justice.

I wonder what that translates to in American police-speak.

I'd reason that it translates to a better sense of officer's discretion. Middle aged woman with no wants and warrants. You scare the crap out of her for the fraudulent call and be on your way to the next call.

/with her tv
//and depending on looks, her phone number

She was lucky she was still hot....

Gwyrddu: Why did she even try to explain how the burglars got the TV out? Did she say she was there watching them?

It just seems a lot simpler if she just said burglars stole my TV and left the details to the imagination. I'm sure there was a legitimate way they could walked off with the TV if the woman managed to get the TV in the house in the first place. Never mind the stupidity of not storing the TV off location in case detectives look around.

Dingoes ate my TV.

She was issued with an £80 fixed-penalty fine for wasting police time.

Valuable time that could be better spent setting up speed traps, busting kids for marijuana or even eating donuts.

Day_Old_Dutchie: Valuable time that could be better spent setting up speed traps, busting kids for marijuana or even eating donuts.

We don't have donuts (or indeed doughnuts) in the UK. We eat lard.

And we are happy because we eat lard.

I_Am_Weasel: "She was lucky. She was a woman in her 40s, of previous good character and that's why she wasn't arrested for perverting the course of justice.

I wonder what that translates to in American police-speak.

"Perverting the course of justice" is when you do something to undermine the basis on which the justice system is build or you directly contravene something mandated by the justice system. For example, a senior member of government resigned last week after being charged with perverting the course of justice - he'd been given a speeding fine a few years ago but claimed his wife was driving at the time. That turned an ordinary road traffic offence (speeding) into perverting the course of justice, and he'll go to jail if he's found guilty.

I think that it is akin to contempt of court but outside the confines of the court room.

In this case the woman was lucky - effectively she deliberately involved the police in an attempt to commit a crime and misled them. I'm surprised she didn't get more than an £80 fine + a criminal record.

Divinegrace: Nice to see the police actually solving a crime...last time we reported a burglary, they came and took the report, then...nothing.

Turns out I was able to track down the 'robber' on my own...got my stuff back, and made sure the 'robber' would not be stealing from anyone else ever again. :-)

Police, they are good for what they are good for...which is....??? I got nothing.

In all fairness they do work on those cases but most places they get tons and tons of small to medium thefts. They tend to have scheduled checks of the local pawn shops to look for anything that is recognizable off the stolen goods lists. Most areas they flat out send lists of serial numbers out to pawn shops so they can go ahead and call it in when somebody brings it in to sell. Unlike most movies and TV shows even if they can happen to get prints or DNA at the scene they don't have anything to compare it to unless the person is a repeat offender and those tests and checks don't take just a few minutes with a music montage playing in the background.

It doesn't help that a lot of stolen goods can flat out be impossible to prove that you are the actual owner of rather than the person that stole them. The police have to prove that the item doesn't belong to the person that stole it. People aren't required to keep receipts and lots and lots of stuff is mass produced without any kind of serial or individual identifier.

If you really want to make sure you get your stuff back make sure anything even remotely valuable has some kind of hidden way to prove you are the owner. Tell the cops how to identify your goods and prove instantly that they belong to you and things tend to get resolved pretty quickly. Buy an engraver. They are fairly cheap and can be used to write your name or an identifying number in a hidden place on almost anything valuable that isn't either very small, fragile, or both. On portable electronics a good place is usually in the battery compartment under the battery. Any firearm that can be field stripped or broken down has numerous places it can be labeled but have that label be invisible while it is assembled. On music CDs you can pop the case apart and put a label under this disc tray and movies you can pull out the label and write on the back before putting it back in the case.

Unless there is a very good reason to not label an item you should.

I'm glad to hear you got your stuff back and also glad to hear that the person responsible didn't turn the tables and call the cops on you. Like I said, it can be really hard to prove ownership of a lot of stuff and if they had called in an assault (from your description I'm guessing there was a justified assault) then not only might you have ended up in jail but you probably still wouldn't have gotten your stuff back.

If you are going to claim that burglars stole your TV and took it out through a window, it's probably a good idea to take some measurements first*

*also applies to 'car thefts', when you are claiming a brand-new, in-box, 52" tv was stolen from the backseat of your Camry before you got home.

"but you don't even have a window"
"he stole that too!"

/RIP Bill Cosby

Hacker_X: Divinegrace: Nice to see the police actually solving a crime...last time we reported a burglary, they came and took the report, then...nothing.

Turns out I was able to track down the 'robber' on my own...got my stuff back, and made sure the 'robber' would not be stealing from anyone else ever again. :-)

Police, they are good for what they are good for...which is....??? I got nothing.

In all fairness they do work on those cases but most places they get tons and tons of small to medium thefts. They tend to have scheduled checks of the local pawn shops to look for anything that is recognizable off the stolen goods lists. Most areas they flat out send lists of serial numbers out to pawn shops so they can go ahead and call it in when somebody brings it in to sell. Unlike most movies and TV shows even if they can happen to get prints or DNA at the scene they don't have anything to compare it to unless the person is a repeat offender and those tests and checks don't take just a few minutes with a music montage playing in the background.

It doesn't help that a lot of stolen goods can flat out be impossible to prove that you are the actual owner of rather than the person that stole them. The police have to prove that the item doesn't belong to the person that stole it. People aren't required to keep receipts and lots and lots of stuff is mass produced without any kind of serial or individual identifier.

If you really want to make sure you get your stuff back make sure anything even remotely valuable has some kind of hidden way to prove you are the owner. Tell the cops how to identify your goods and prove instantly that they belong to you and things tend to get resolved pretty quickly. Buy an engraver. They are fairly cheap and can be used to write your name or an identifying number in a hidden place on almost anything valuable that isn't either very small, fragile, or both. On portable electronics a good place is usually in the battery compartment under the battery. Any ...

No 'assault' was necessary....just showed up at guys house, called him a thief in front of his family....now that i think about it, his mother 'could' have been charged with 'assault' when she found out what he did.

See the key was the pool que, he happened to gank a que that was custom made by a company that hadn't been in business for years, I was able to describe it to a tee right down to the rubber stopper on the bottom that was busted off when a friend of my used it as a Billy Club on some dude that got lippy once. Any who, guy was embarrassed to tears in front of his whole family...got my stuff back. It all worked out.

Divinegrace: No 'assault' was necessary....just showed up at guys house, called him a thief in front of his family....now that i think about it, his mother 'could' have been charged with 'assault' when she found out what he did.

See the key was the pool que, he happened to gank a que that was custom made by a company that hadn't been in business for years, I was able to describe it to a tee right down to the rubber stopper on the bottom that was busted off when a friend of my used it as a Billy Club on some dude that got lippy once. Any who, guy was embarrassed to tears in front of his whole family...got my stuff back. It all worked out.

Glad to hear it worked out that way. More situations in the world should work out like that. Civilized.

Being able to describe something exactly is all the proof any normal reasonable person is going to need. It is sad that it doesn't always work out that way in the legal system and that there are so many "little" crimes out there that they flat out don't have the resources to even try to solve all of them.

An amazing number of small thefts are carried out by stupid kids. And I really do mean stupid when they manage to do more damage than the value of the stuff they steal. Stuff like breaking a car window that costs several hundred to replace and they grab a stereo that they might be able to sell for 50 if they are lucky.

Showing up and shaming the dude in front of his family probably did more to stop him from becoming a lifetime criminal than the legal system ever could have hoped to do.

Again, I'm please to hear that you didn't give the guy a beating that it sounds like he deserved.