Discovery of Crime

[mbbored]

This incident happened to me last weekend, and I was hoping somebody could advise as to how I should have handled the situation.

Saturday morning, I got up at 8:30, and took my dog for a quick walk around the block.  When I came to the house that was catti-corner to mine, I saw the car parked in front of their house had its window smashed in, stereo ripped out and glove compartment torn to pieces.  I went to the front door and rang the doorbell.  Soon, a woman came down in her bathrobe and cracked the window of the front room, shouting "What do you want?"  I said that the car in front of her house had been broken into.  She told me that it wasn't her car and to go away, then slammed the window shut.

Should I have just continued walking past the car?  Should I have just called the police?  Or was I right to talk to that woman?

[guihong]

I think you should have called the police.  The owner might have been identified, and the car itself might have been stolen.

gui

[JeanFromBNA]

Call the police.  They could find out to whom the car was registered, and contact them.

[Alida]

Definitely call the police. 

[keelhaulrose]

I recently talked to a cousin of mine who is a police officer, and we had a talk kind of like this pertaining to an RV I saw that had a smashed window.
He said that while it is nice to call the non-emergency number, unfortunately there's not a lot the police can do. They can look up who it is registered to, however many police departments are very busy and won't have time to go tell someone that their car is broken into, and where my cousin lives, if the police are called a report has to be filed, and some people don't find it worth it and don't like the hassel.
I have to disagree with the above posters. The person who owns the car will find out about it eventually (unless they've abandoned the car, in which case it doesn't matter) and you should leave it to them to see if they want the police summoned or not.
I'd reccomend differently if you had witnessed the crime itself, however it's probably best you stay out of it.

[Alida]

I disagree.  No, there's not much the police can do, but they CAN notify the person whose car it is.  For all the OP knows, that was a stolen car, left there, as my mother's was (stolen from the mall a few years ago.  Merry Christmas, huh?)  It's certainly not a 911 situation, though.

[Clara Bow]

I'm a little curious as to why the homeowner was so hateful...you'd think she'd be glad that her neighbors were showing some concern, even if it wasn't her car. I'd call the police and report the vehicle and then let it go.

[IndianInlaw]

Don't let her discourage you.

Someone might be searching for that car as evidence or something.

I walked by a parked motorcycle for several days (thinking it was parked) until people started vandalizing it.  I called the police and they said they would look into it.  The next time I saw it, it had one of those big pink stickers on it.

Then, it was gone.

[mich3554]

I'm a little curious as to why the homeowner was so hateful

Since it was 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday, it was entirely possible that the OP dragged the woman out of bed.

[scattley]

I definately would have called the police to report it. My local corner store is in an area with a large 25 place car park. It is usually empty but for four weeks there was this combivan parked in the carpark. The staff of the shop (one per on all week and two during the week) reported it to their boses but nothing was done. I went and had a look and you could not see in the back - there were no broken windows and the van was full of tools. Anyway five weeks later a customer came into the store (it was still there) and asked how long the van had been there - it was her sons and had all his work tools in it. He had been fired from his job because the van had been stolen with the tools in it (a builder). It appears that it had been taken for a joy ride, nothing had been stolen and the car dumped in the car park. If the staff (myself included) had not passed the buck the young man still would have had his job.

On another vain - my brothers car was stolen from his front yard and was dumped in a university car park 30km away. It was only the call from a person walking his dog that noticed the car in a strange position and called the cops that he managed to get it back.

So I say - report it.

[Heavenly]

I say call as well.

My car was stolen out of my driveway and I had given it up for lost when I received a phone call from the police saying that they had located it. 

Turns out the thieves had abandoned it in the next town over.  The neighbors across from where it was parked noticed that my car had been there for several days and no one knew who it belonged to--so they called the police.  And the police called me.

Car back!  Yeah!!

Because some people took the time to call.   

[graceh9]

yes report it -- in case it is an abandoned car

BUT I would never go hammer on someone's door early Sat morning unless I knew that the car belonged to them -- the woman was annoyed because you had hauled her out of bed or the bathroom or whatever for someone else's car

[HogwartsAlum]

Absolutely report it...the police can't do anything if they don't know about it.  Sometimes they can't do anything anyway, but at least whatever it is has a report attached to it that can be referenced later, such as if it was a recurring vandalism that they could then later tie to the perpetrators. 

I agree that the lady probably was mad about being waked up.  But you didn't know, so I wouldn't worry about her.  She didn't have to be a crab when you were trying to do the right thing.

[mbbored]

Thanks for all your advice.  I guess I should've called the police afterall.  I never even considered that it might have been stolen.  However, with any luck, I won't have opportunity to use this advice.

[baconsmom]

This incident happened to me last weekend, and I was hoping somebody could advise as to how I should have handled the situation.

Saturday morning, I got up at 8:30, and took my dog for a quick walk around the block.  When I came to the house that was catti-corner to mine, I saw the car parked in front of their house had its window smashed in, stereo ripped out and glove compartment torn to pieces.  I went to the front door and rang the doorbell.  Soon, a woman came down in her bathrobe and cracked the window of the front room, shouting "What do you want?"  I said that the car in front of her house had been broken into.  She told me that it wasn't her car and to go away, then slammed the window shut.

Should I have just continued walking past the car?  Should I have just called the police?  Or was I right to talk to that woman?

I ran into this in my old neighborhood, though we (Roomie and I) didn't know to whom the car belonged because it was on the street in front of our apartment complex. We called the police, who were taken aback that someone not personally involved in the crime would report it. They never called us back, so I don't know how it turned out, but I always default to the authorities in such a situation.