Saturday 1 April 2017

The police turned up

for the third time yesterday - and will have to come back at least once more. All this over a burglary in which the would-be burglar got away with nothing. The paper work will be an inch high before they have finished - if not more.
Yes, the paper work.
I had a phone call from one of the CIB staff working on the incident yesterday. Could he come over and show me some photographs of the possible offender? Would I also sign my statement.
He came over about twenty minutes later. I am not sure what he thought when I asked to check his ID - but there is something else going on and I wanted to be sure he was who he said he was. He explained the procedure - twice. I was well aware of it anyway but he had to do it. 
There were eight photographs. A glance told me which one I thought was the offender but I looked carefully at the rest and then tapped it for the benefit of the video camera and said, "If it is any of them then it is that one." 
Why didn't I say "It's that one"? I suppose I know too much about the way people "see" things. Under stress and shock you don't necessarily see things accurately. I was as certain as I possibly could be and that has to be it if I was going to be absolutely honest as well.  I signed the back of the photograph and the spot below the photograph.
And then he gave me the statement to read through. Oh ouch! The language in which it was written made me cringe. It wasn't just the "police-ese" but the lack of punctuation and the grammar. I wanted to say "look, I'll dictate a statement to you". I didn't. But I did say, "Something important has been left out."
He asked. I explained. We discussed. He agreed it could be very important and said he would have to get a new statement typed up. He wrote notes into the statement. I'll get a new statement to sign some time in the next few days. I hope the addition helps the overall statement to make more sense.
All this running around for "serious aggravated trespass". I hope they catch the criminal. It would be good if he had to spend the next years of his life writing out every word he has caused to be written over and over again. The problem is he may not even be able to write his name.
 

1 comment:

kayT said...

I love the idea of offenders having to write out all the words their offenses have caused to be written. Wonderful!

When I was in trouble in elementary school I had to copy out the US constitution. I learned a lot, and also learned not to talk in assembly (which is what I was being punished for).

I doubt your would-be thief would learn much by having to write out all that police-ese, though. I know it was a nasty experience and I'm sorry you keep having to re-live it. However, I'm glad it wasn't worse.