Police Non-Action

I've written a little about how the police behaved when they attended, and the days that passed before a detective phoned to say the police intend doing nothing. 

The violation of my peace of mind is a trivial matter for the police, they are not going to catch the thief and they accept that. We all know that the thief also knows that. He knows that if he creeps into a home to steal the risk to him is nil, or as close as to make no difference to his behaviour. 

We shape our behaviour based on the risk v the reward, this is clear even in the conventional work place. There used to be payments called "danger money" in some jobs, and most of us expect those who are in high risk jobs, whatever the risk to be paid more. Even where the risk is purely to our financial security, such as temporary contracts we would still expect a higher wage than a person employed on a more secure basis.

So, the thief knew he wouldn't be caught by the police. But why would the police be so resigned to never tracing my stolen goods? The three high value items all had unique identifiers but the codes were never asked for and will never be recorded on any register of stolen goods. 

I didn't think of this until yesterday when I was discussing the transfer of Apple Care to any new device I purchased. As I was giving the code numbers I realised that nobody else had asked for them. Neither did they ask for a detailed description of my bag, purse, phone case and card wallet. As I was never given a copy of my statement I cannot be sure whether I mentioned the colour of my bag but certainly they didn't ask about the other items. When I was making a list for my insurance claim this came to mind as I'd spent a considerable time when I first arrived back in the UK looking for purse and settled on a distinctive multi-coloured leather one.

For a thief there is an tiny chance of being traced, and an equally tiny risk that any penalty will impact significantly on future prospects because most of those creeping around will not have any prospects. For young persons prospects equal hope, and if we are at the bottom of the food chain without hope we lead desperate miserable lives.

I was born into the lowest level of society, but I had hope, thank God.