On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:22:51 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Moe DeLoughan" wrote in message
...
On 10/15/2014 12:06 AM, micky wrote:
OT Should I tell the police?

About three or four weeks ago, I saw a sticker on the rear window of a
car parked in my n'hood, the parking lot of a townhouse n'hood, saying
it would be towed away because it had a flat tire. No deadline was
given. The HOA does this, aiui, only if someone has complained. Of
course we have more than our share** of petty people who would complain.

**Unless there are so many petty people in the world that we have no
more than our share.

So I pumped his tire up.

Goofy move number one.

So I called the police and just wanted them to run the plate, and if
they said it was stolen, I'd tell them where they or the owner can come
and get it.

But the cop wants me to tell him where it is, so they can "roll by and
look at it", and he says they won't do anything if there isn't a
problem.

What problem could there be except that the owner reported it stolen?**
If they tell me that I'll believe them and I'll tell them where it is.
But if it's not stolen, I DON'T WANT TO CAUSE TROUBLE FOR THE OWNER,

Goofy move number two. Why the hell are you playing cop? This isn't
your issue.

After all, I'm the one pumping up the tire so it won't be
towed away.

Just think - someone out there may have had his/her car stolen, and
you're keeping the cops from finding it because you for some ungodly
reason decided to obstruct the police from doing their job.

**One idea, it could have the wrong plates on it, but we could probably
verify that on the phone too. The DMV records show the make. Do they
also show the model and color? I think so. If the plates don't match
the make or model or color, then too I would tell them where the car is.

Would you tell the police where it is before they told you it was stolen
or misplated?

I'd call the cops and let them do their job. You don't know whether it
is a stolen car. For all you know, the trunk has a body in it. For all
you know, the cops placed it there as a bait vehicle to catch robbers
breaking into cars. The only thing you know is, it has a flat tire.
Let the cops figure it out.

Wow! Definite plus 1. If it's been used in a crime then Micky's
contaminated the crime scene.

The only crime it might have been was auto theft, and I didn't
contanimate anything. I didn't touch anything but the right rear tire
valve.

There are so MANY reasons to let the cops do

But none that are good.

their job and so FEW to pump up the tire

I only claim there is one, buit it's a very good one. They were going
to tow the car away if I didn't pump up the tire. That means possible
damage during the hookup or tow, that the car won't be there when the
owner gets home, that he'll have to pay for the tow and, as of now,
about 4 weeks of storage. That's hundreds of dolllars. Plus a taxi
or a favor from a friend to get to the two lot, which is about 10 mile
from here and would take 3 buses to get there on public transportation.

That if he's gone too long, because he's unconscious in a hospital
perhaps, they will eventually sell his car.

All because he has a slow leak he might well not have known about, A
tire that stayed inflated 3 or 4 weeks since the last time I pumped it
up.

or touch the car in any way. If
something happened to the owner, delaying contact with police could have
really bad results.

The police insisted that they wouldn't do anything unless the car was
stolen, if they came out here. Now you're suggesting they would check
the owner's home address, ring the doorbell, knock on the door, and
break in if he didn't answer. Even I don't think t hey woudl do that.
Were that their plan, and he was out of town, that's all the more
reason I don't want the police involved.

FWIW, by asking to run the plate but refusing to say
where it was you've now placed yourself among the people cops think are
suspicious.

That's why I wanted to stay anonymous.

I'll bet they have your caller ID and have already started
looking around. For you. (-:

I doubt it. My other interactions with the police convince me that they
rarely go to so much trouble. It's not like TV. Neither number I
called was 911 or an 800 number. They still might have caller id, even
in the face of *67, but I'm not worried. If I had yelled at them, "I'm
not giving you the address so you can screw over the owner," then they
might have pursued me, because they're annoyed, but I'm polite and don't
make accusations.