Posted: 5/16/2008 8:17:34 PM EDT
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ok, so i went to get a pizza and as i am coming up my road there is a truck stopped in the middle of the road facing oncoming traffic. kinda odd. no headlights or flashers. as if he is trying to hide something. i called dispatch and had them send someone to check it out. after waiting 15 minutes two officers arrive. they do not exit their vehicles. one pulls along side and asks if everything is ok. the guy says he ran out of gas and help is on the way. the officers leave??? ok there have been numerous break ins lately. i had 2 pistold stolen from my house a few months ago and had 2 gas cans (for my mowers) stolen off my porch. now this truck is parked in front of my house and sitting there in the middle of the road and they didnt check ID or run a tag. NOTHING!?! i found it very odd and i have been sitting on my porch watching and making sure nobody comes jumping out of my neighbors window or anything. what would you guys do in a situation like this? -Tim |
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Maybe you should go be "neighborly" to investigate the situation and see if the guy could use a hand. This, of course, is your excuse to copy down the make, model, tag number of the vehicle and VIN# if you feel like standing next to the driver for a minute. If you've seen "Gone in 60 Seconds" or "No Country For Old Men" you know what you can do with this information. Get investigatin' 
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lol. that might be why someone stole my gas the first time. but as for the running the tags, they werent there long enough. i watched them come up the road and they pulled along side. were there 10 seconds. if they ran them they were already gone by the time they got the info. |
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so a guy is stopped in the roadway with a 'disabled' vehicle and you call 911 on him? you call 911 instead of walking up and talking to him? you hear he is out of gas and you don't find out if he might be a good guy and help him push his vehicle over to the side to be in a safer spot? you believe that the LE response was unsatisfactory but did not call 911 back to inquire about the disposition of the call? so, did someone drive all the way over there and actually help this guy in the truck out while you sat on your porch eating pizza? |
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turn this around on me eh? have shit stolen out of your house and off your porch then you tell me that you would feel comfortable with a vehicle in the middle of the road in front of your house. i just came in here to see if this was normal but obviously i stepped into GD instead. 
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with a two person unit and an MDT, you can have the tag return in less than 10 seconds. if you were unsatisfied with the response, your course of action is to call 911 back and either be advised of the disposition of the call or request another unit to come back out. so what was the outcome out there anyway? |
BTW, i'm not turning this around on you, i am simply asking questions that you should be asking yourself at the time. i would have been armed and investigated on my own before i was LE, and the same is true now except that i may consider letting somebody know what i'm doing...maybe even pull out on radio. i have handled "worse" things than this before i was LE, and currently do the same when i'm off duty at home and about. and yes, i have been a victim of property crime. in this day and age, who hasn't? i'm still curious about some of the details. |
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well i really dont know what happened. i went inside to get something to drink and urinate, then they were gone.. i thought it was odd that they were gone when i got back. 3 minutes max. i called dispatch to tell them i was unsatisfied and he asked "what do you want me to do about it?" i was in shock really. i said, you've got to be kidding me. then thanked him for what he had done and we hung up. a little while later the officer called me and told me he asked what was going on and the guy told him he was out of gas. i was like no shit, i heard that. |
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so you do not know what transpired in the three minutes. his buddy could have rolled up with a gallon of gas, poured it, then off they went. the guy could have tried starting one more time, the engine caught, then he was off. his buddy could have come by with a tow strap, slapped it on, then off they went. you'll never know, and neither will we. the guy could have been sitting with no headlights and flashers on because he had tried restarting so many times his battery was getting low and when he did get gas he wanted some charge to actually crank the starter. maybe the guy had also called 911 to let them know he was disabled in the roadway and wanted the police to check to see if it was too much of a hazard. maybe the guy had plates registered a couple of streets over, or could give a good close address/name of where he had been headed to put him in the area, or was a known person. all we have is a suspicious vehicle call. the only crime is a traffic infraction of improper stopping/standing and maybe no headlights after dark. i know full well how people are these days, but 911 is not the "McDonald's drive through" as people treat it. customer service and "speaking with the manager" does not always get the "customer" a 100% satisfaction guarantee. you and your property are safe and intact. the guy in the truck that you were worried about is gone after being spoken to by police. |
| I'll admit you are getting a bit of flack in this forum, but you have to understand. In that ten seconds we can run the plates, cross ref. the driver and have a criminal history ran on the computer in the car. The reason you are getting the shit that you are is because as law enforcement we get this all the time, you have no idea what we are doing about the situation yet you assume the worst. |
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Maybe the cops knew the guy(s) and knew that there was nothing to worry about. Could have easily run a plate in 10 seconds. Hard to say but you're getting upset about nothing. Probably was a couple of ARFCOMERS and if the police had run their licenses, there would be a thread in GD about the mean cops who had no reason to run them since they weren't doing anything wrong. |