To think that the police are useless?

[IdreamofClooney]

Forgive my rant (please) but I am very cross!

My handbag was stolen on 4 April (from underm y feet in a quiet cafe) which was very upsetting for me, more so as I had photos of DS in there that are irreplaceable and not to mention the fact that I had £170 cash in my almost brand new radley (get me) purse.

Anyway, I duly reported this crime to the police. Nothing happened other than a PC phoning me to tell me that he wasn;t going to give me a lecture on being careful with my stuff, but to be more carefull with my stuff (which went down well).

A couple of weeks later I got my mobile bill showing over £20 of calls made by said handbag theif.

In Nancy Drew (or perhaps Miss Marple) mode I hurried to the police station with my evidence.

I have now made THREE complaints as the police have done BA about it.

I got a calling card from the officer "investigating" my crime at the weekend and after numnerous calls from me he called me back at 8.30 this morning (yes very handy but I digress)

He asked me to bring antoerh copy of my phone bill to the station as he had not recived the first one I dropped off over two months ago. HE gave me all kinds of excuses, including the fact that he had been to busy catching terrorists to chase up my crime.

Now I am as frightened by terrorist attacks as the next woman but I fail to see how a terrorist attack in GLASGOW in JULY can prevent a police officer in EDINBURGH investigating a crime that took place in APRIL.

As far as I am concerned perhaps I should give up my stressful and low paid job and become a handbag theif as apparently that it cool - the police do not care.

Am I being unreasonable ?

I agree completely Jeremy, its not the £170 I got for my pram that was in my purse (though that is upsetting as I was so thrilled when I sold my pram!) it is the photos of DS on my phone - a lovely one of him sleeping in said pram, all my numbers, my diary with everyone's birthday etc and stupid things like my boots advantage card, cafe loyalty card (so close to that free cup of coffee) and money off coupons

I was so hoping that my bag would be found in a bin - I actually raked through a few bins in the locale...... as I would so love to have my stuff back

YABU, but I do sympathise.

I had my bag nicked at the supermarket a couple of years ago.

It had a fair amount of cash in, my mobile, camera with pics of DS3's first proper birthday party with friends, etc etc etc.

The police did sweet FA, other than take a statement. And unfortunately, I expected little else.

The harsh reality is that the vast majority of this low-level crime (and I know it's not low-level to you) goes uninvestigated, usually down to the sheer volume, or the cursed targets (which is why you do see some really silly arrests etc).

Current hot potato is Domestic Violence, which can only be a good thing. Plus a lot of time and resources are being put into racial matters, to say nothing of terrorism. Obviously this takes resources away from basic policing.

DH is a copper, and I know that he runs from *rsehole to breakfast time dealing with allsorts most days. As a sgt he does do his best to get the PCs to follow stuff up, but it is difficult.

Lucky for the CID DH who spends time in the canteen, DH often comes home having not had time for a break.

I know of no bounty payments though??

(and I was gutted at losing the camera).

You want to have any crimes happen on Network Rail property. Then you get the Transport police on the case.

My car window was smashed and radio stolen. I phoned the police and they basically said "oh..and...". But once they realised it had happened in a Station Car park, they put me on to the Transport Police who sent a scene of crime officer out from York to Bradford to fingerprint the car. They then sent me update letters every month for a year. Sadly, the fingerprints did not match any on their database, no witnesses, no suspects.

But still...

Well, it's preferable not to be the victim of any crime, lol.

We did get my car broken into once on the drive, and before DH reported it we got two of the local coppers knocking on the door asking if we'd had the car broken into. Apparently, someone had been picked up for screwing cars on the estate and he admitted to doing several (all the same make).