Isn’t it amazing how the police treat, or should I say ignore, petty crime. We just had a cell phone stolen. The cell phone is a new model and gps enabled. Furthermore, a security camera caught the thief taking the phone.

First of all the police no longer take the time to come out and take a report. Upon calling the police department an operator takes your phone number and informs you that an officer will call you back in a few minutes. (Translation: when and if, we get around to it, we will call back.) An officer sitting behind a desk, eating donuts and drinking coffee, calls about an hour or two later.

The officer is very rude and just wants the basics: Name, address, your ID (in case you have warrants) and what was stolen. The fact that the cell phone is sending out a gps signal is not important. The cost of the phone is not important. The fact that we have the thief on camera - not important!

Ok. So what is going to happen next? Well the report gets entered into the police computer. Some day if they run across the phone maybe you can get it back if you still have the original receipt.

What can I do? Call the insurance and get another phone by paying the $50.00 dollar deductible. Ok. Now I am out a lot of trouble, time and $50.00. What about the thief? Well the thief gets to keep the cell phone with the blessings of our true blue finest.