Hotspotoutdoors

With current economic times being what they are you may want to keep a very close eye on your vehicles/boats etc at local launches/parks. Friend of mines son and GF stopped at Coon Rapids Dam Park to walk the dog yesterday, parked out on Egret, locked the car, etc etc and where gone no longer than a 1/2 hour and came back to a smashed car window and the car basically stripped. In this amount of time the scum bags were able to run up a $600.00 bill for gift cards at the local Red Lobster, and some place called yum yums? and fill up on gas somewhere else. Word to the wise from the local Gerdarmes is that theres a pro group working metro areas parks, gyms, etc and watching the women to see if they get out of their cars with or without a purse...since most women carry purses when they see one get out without it..the car becomes a target..just an FYI for the honest hardworking folks out there..oh yeah, the gift cards have already been cancelled by the restaurant..but still the [PoorWordUsage] with the lost wallets, purses, id, etc...I say baseball bat to the knees should take care of the problem..but thats just me.

Wow, was this during the day? That area gets alot of traffic, I'm surprised someone didn't notice and call the cops

high noon

Pair of pliers and a blowtorch.

That plain sucks. I'm so tired of hearing of this garbage going on. I wish they could catch these creeps, but chancesare they won't. I'm suprised they can't look at the tapes of them filling gas and get them that way.

Besides checking the film at the gas station double check with all the other places the card was used. You never know where a camera might be used.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine in Bloomington a few weeks ago. Police officer who took report said this is almost a daily thing...

I saw this happen to someone in Savage as well....Guy and his GF went for a run and came back to a smashed in window at 4:00 in the afternoon. I saw a good 2-3 squad cars combing the bike trails afterwords. Stay safe and watch eachothers back.

it doesn't matter even with a camera. I had my car broken into at an apartment. It was on tape, and they knew the 3 kids who did it. They couldn't do anything unless they were caught with stolen property. The cops are too busy getting speeders, people who blow through the car pool on ramps and getting donuts to worry about crime like this.

I agree the people that broke into my friends car were caught on tape at best buy purchacing a TV with one of the credit cards, as well as at a gas staion filling up. 2 months later and still nothing.

Several cars in our neighborhood were broken into. Police were called and resulted in foot chase. The SCUM BAGS were caught hiding out in an enclosed neighbor’s deck. As they were eluding the Police, they toss the stolen property before they were caught. No charges were filed (not even trespassing). Police are too busy to deal with this stuff. I hope it doesn’t take one of these SCUM BAGS getting shot before the Police will take this seriously. Something needs to be done for the sake of the home owners and for the SCUM BAGS.

Kind of sounds like the police only care about stuff that will bring money into the dept. Way to serve and protect! If you're gonna shoot the crooks, remember to keep it below the knees.

I know when my garage was broke into the first of 3 times this past fall/winter, I called to have an officer come out and take pictures and possibly take some obvious fingerprints just in case someone ending up getting caught. They could use these fingerprints to solve some of the unsolved break ins in the area. I wasn't asking for them to call in the FBI, SWAT team, CIA or anything unreasonable and was told that I watch too much television and they are not CSI! I agree that they are too busy to investigate something that doesn't mean a profit for them. The real kicker was when I went to pick up a copy of the police report for insurance. On the top in big, bold lettering it said, "VICTIM REFUSED OFFICER INVESTIGATION". A little civilian justice is needed in my opinion.

one of my dads buddies had his work truck broken into, they caught the guy on tape at the pawn shop unloading the goods and the cops knew who it was but wouldnt do anything beucase he was one of there informents. So moral of the story work for the cops and you can break laws all the time and nothing will happen to you, to bad it wasnt like the old west, just kill everyone that breaks the law. Haha

What about concealed weapons? Oh yeah you would get sued by the scumbag and lose. WHAT?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant beleive they have all this evidence and don't prosecute. These situations are disgusting. Make sure you have plenty of inscurance then right.

Ya know, the DNR should place a sign that security cameras are in place at the public accesses, whether they're there or not.

I know, it isn't probable, but this public access theft really sucks. I had a minor theft a couple weeks ago of the 4 pole to 7 blade adapter and had to go a long ways without trailer lights as I posted in the St. Croix thread.

Maybe we all can keep a close eye out when we're at the accesses for people setting in cars without trailers, etc?

Don't make excuses for these "people" like it's the economies fault. They made the choice.

could happen any time any place. Last summer I had by boat looted, in my driveway, the ONE night I left it outside, and I got home at dusk so it was a spontaneous job. I'd have probably heard them but the neighbors have sprinklers that hiss at night. Constant vigilance is required.

This is pretty crappy. I think the best thing anyone can do is just not leave stuff in your car. I have had this happen to me and learned it's best to just keep nothing of any value in the car.

If the officer refused to pursue further investigation and not the victim, then the officer filed a false report or someone in the department improperly altered it.

Be very careful not to give the officers that kind of release, and always get a police report after filing a theft or vandalism police call. Someone is responsible for that stamp; so if it is being used improperly to reduce someone's legitimate work load, that can be traced. If something looks fishy, contact the precinct or the local police ombudsman, or at a last resort, the county attorney. Usually the county attorney has to work closely with the local cops and rather than risking votes in the next election may work to fix the problem quietly, but not always; some CAs are real hot dogs and may even make a situation worse on purpose.

So what that the police are worked hard, who isn't? and who still with a job hasn't had speedups and staff reductions add to their work load? When citizens end up taking the law into their own hands they very often end up being criminalized for it; so be careful. There is absolutely nothing wrong with requiring your local cops to do the thorough job they are hired to do, just like the rest of us are required to do on our jobs.

I had a car broken into on the street in front of my house 3 weeks ago. Cleaned it out, about $700 worth of stuff.

Based on the police's response and dealings, it's clear to me this is not important to them.

Since it happened, 4 more on my street have been busted into, hardly any concern from them. People will take actions into their own hands eventually...

This isn't a new thing. The economy definately has already created a situation where people are doing this more often, but this is something that has been getting worse for the last 10 years.

Before my wife was my wife she had her wallet stolen at a grocery store in Maple Grove (about 5 years ago). Within 45 minutes the two girls who stole it charged a total of 12 thousand dollars on her company credit card and check card. In this one case... the Maple Grove police department investigated much further than I thought they would have. They found the two girls they believed did it, but my wife was unable to 100% identify them so no charges were ever filed. Too bad....

Anyway.... I have a serious issue with the businesses the cards were used at. If the businesses that the charges were made had done their jobs properly and asked for an I.D. they wouldn't have gotten away with it. My wife is asian and the two girls were white and african american. Would have been hard to say "oh.. that was when I had a different hair style". Since this happened all of our cards now say "please see I.D.". This still means that we have to have faith that a cashier will look at the back of the card....

All I am trying to say is let's also not forget that the place of the purchases holds resposibility too.

As for the police..... I think our one experience with the MGPD was not typical.... something needs to change with the police. I have other rants that deal with my police experiences....... but I will wait until other topics appear.

Going through school I used to work for a major retailer. Having see ID is nice on cards but it carries no weight what so ever and the person at the checkout has no obligation to actually check for an ID. The place wear I worked went as far as not even accepting cards that only said see Id dew to the fact that they are not valid unless signed...

"Anyway.... I have a serious issue with the businesses the cards were used at. If the businesses that the charges were made had done their jobs properly and asked for an I.D. they wouldn't have gotten away with it. My wife is asian and the two girls were white and african american. Would have been hard to say "oh.. that was when I had a different hair style". Since this happened all of our cards now say "please see I.D.". This still means that we have to have faith that a cashier will look at the back of the card....

All I am trying to say is let's also not forget that the place of the purchases holds resposibility too."

I was just looking at the officaial master and visa card web site. According to their official rules a business can not accept a card unless signed. They also state that a customer does not have any abligation to provide a ID when using a card.

Maybe your serious issue should be with the credit card company not the Business

I might start taking down the license plates of vehicles that aren't pulling trailers at one of the landings that I frequent. It's a fairly shady landing with a lot of non-fisherman traffic and I've always figured it would just be a matter of time until something like this happes to me. Hasn't yet(knock on wood) but I guess I'd like to be prepared if it ever does.

Last year my gas can was stolen out of the back of my boat. I have a little 14 foot alumacraft tiller, and someone apparently thought it would be a good idea to steal my big old metal gas tank. It wasn't that expensive of a repair, and I guess I needed the upgrade, but the connectors don't fit as well to my engine or the can itself anymore and I get leaked on occasionally when they decide to just pop off.

Pretty stupid thief though, unless their boat is low on gas, hope they tried to put it into their car.