i was robbed

[daddz]

not my bike and not by a stranger, it was a person i believed to be a good friend. i trusted him once too often it seems, he recently took me shopping when i wasnt feeling the best, as i was getting out to go shopping he said he had an appt to go to and would be back in 10 minutes, as usual i left my smokes and keys on the floor of his car. i dint think nothing of it. the next morning i noticed my lockup cabinet was slightly open, which was strange but being in a hurry i just done a quick check of the drawers for my coin collection among other things and locked it back up while chastising myself for forgetting to lock it.
the next day i noticed i was missing a roll of toilet paper and a new tube of toothpaste, my youngest had just gone to live with my cousin due to my health and his being at the rebel stage of life, so i thought maybe the boy took them as i told him to take his new toothbrush with him, didnt think much more of it.
about a week ago i went looking for the angle grinder to cut a bit of c channel for my home made flower pot heater, and couldnt find it, now this got me to thinking because it was given to me by the guy who robbed me, we brought his daughter a crissy present and gave her a few other things suited to her age so thats why he gave us the grinder, G the person in question was also the last person to use the grinder, not that that matters, as he knows where the tools are kept anyway as he does, used to do all my welding work, he wont be doing anymore.
yesterday i went to the cabinet to do a quick head count of the coins i wanted to list on ebay, and noticed i have about half a kilo of lose coins gone, around $400 purchase value about $700 retail value.
to say my head is in a rage is putting it mildly, i have stopped myself going to his place several times already, im older and in bad health but nothing a stick and the element of surprise wouldnt equalize, but my upbringing gets the better of me and i want to give him a chance to repay what he took, and than my blood pressure goes up and i want to pay someone to visit him, underneath all the anger something keeps saying give him a chance or go to the cops, which would be a total waste of time in my eyes, though im guessing G's fingerprints are still all over it, even though its hidden away where it cant get touched unless you want to open it.
right now we have a thunder storm overhead and thats pretty much what my mind is like. im normally placid but have been on assault charges once before because i found the guy who broke into my flat at the time, i beat the charges by the way as he provoked the situation in front of witness's.
i just dont know which way to go. i would hate to have him charged and locked up as he is a single dad, but i also cant feel comfortable within myself if i let it go.
not sure which words describe how i feel but i wont type the ones im thinking of lol grrrr angry sad almost fit :wink:

 

[Ade]

A bad situation all round and you have my sympathies. Assuming you are absolutely sure it's him, I'd threaten to go to police if he doesn't give back what he took and follow through. Don't forget to change all your locks.

 

[daddz]

yep im 100% sure, worst luck. im not in as much of a rage about it right now, so im going to approach him with the facts and see what he says to that, if he is apologetic and is willing to replace whats missing that will be the end of it, if not i take the evidence to the cops.

 

[ohzee]

Sounds like stealing to feed a drug habit to me.

If you let to much time go by you are going to miss your chance to report. I'm not a lawyer by any means , but id think
if you decided to let it go later you could just tell the police you worked it out. Yet if you do nothing now hoping he will
pay it back (someone who steals something like that from you in this manner is not going to pay you back) and nothing
ever happens you are stuck.

I had something similar happen to me years ago and it took me a while to realize what had happened.

If he is battling a drug addiction then getting in trouble may be the wake up call he needs. So if you wanted you could
even rationalize your trying to help him. You don't want people like that in your life so I know what I would do.

Anyway sorry about your loss. I understand your feeling.

 

[amberwolf]

As far as "evidence" goes, well, at my house after the fire, there were thieves caught by the police climbing over the fence out of the yard with items from in the yard that I identified as mine (without seeing them, describing them for the police after they asked if I had this such-and-such thing here), and they wouldn't even arrest *any* of them, much less bring charges or get them tried. And I didnt' get teh stuff back either. I dunno if the cops kept it or threw it away, or let the thieves take it. (probably the latter)

So the thieves know they can do this stuff with impunity, and no one will ever do anything about it.

All we can do is sit back and watch (or I suppose if an owner has a gun they could shoot the thief dead (better not just wound them, or it'll go really bad for the owner) when catching them in the act of stealing, and express their intense fear of death at the hands of the thief, and maybe only get a few years in prison for "defending themselves"..but the thieves will get away with pretty much anything they want to).

 

[Hillhater]

Get a video camera !
Then when you have the evidence, Get a big dog to scare others away. ,!

 

[amberwolf]

Hopefully that will work for someone somewhere, but it won't work here--if the police actually witnessing the theft isn't enough for them to arrest, then NOTHING is, at least here.

 

[daddz]

i have no hope in the police investigating this. but i did get to the bottom of it and items will be replaced in time, if not i will leave it to karma. not real happy about it. ive decided to sell the rest and move to a warmer climate, well thats been a thought for a while but this just pushes me along to actually doing it.
have 2 dogs but he used the front door key, i have no doubts he couldnt of gotten in the back door.

 

[Lurkin]

1. change locks.*
2. report to police.
3. install covert video surveillance and/or some form of alarm.*
4. arrange a better strategy for valuables. Selling them is one way, moving them somewhere safe is another.*

^ without doing these things, you are agreeing to just cop it. Further your 'mate' will probably do it again to you and to others as there's really nothing stopping him.

* I have done all of these things before to prevent being stolen off. I suspected a flatmate was about to start helping himself after being given notice to leave (non payment of rent). Given no theft occurred, there was no reason to report him to the police (apart from some unopened packages of loo paper! hahaha he should have just asked for it).