"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
- P. J. O'Rourke -
There I stood, freezing my ass off...
It was mid-winter, and I had just gotten in from an excellent bodyboarding session at Torrey Pines beach. Thank God, this was back in the days when I still wore a wetsuit.
An excellent bodyboarding session.
Image courtesy of Christopher Sardegna and http://unsplash.com
My Surfmobile was gone!
I knew there was something shady about the tall, scraggly fellow who questioned me while I waited for the gate to be unlocked. He didn't really care when the beach would open; he was sizing up my van to steal it while I was out surfing. I guess I ought to pay attention when something makes the skin at the back of my neck crawl...
After calling my wife,
I sheltered in the restroom to stay out of the wind. Conserving body heat, I was stewing over what had happened. My beloved Surfmobile! Gone without warning. Would I ever see her again?
My Surfmobile wasn't the only thing missing.
Along with the van, that thieving S.O.B. got my wallet, credit cards, and a checkbook with a stack of blank checks. I had left all that, along with the keys, in the tilt-out glove box that was part of the engine cover.
When we contacted the credit card company, we learned that the bastard had already made a purchase at a nearby gas station. Once reported, we were no longer liable for further charges.
I filed a complete report with the police.
They had all the information I could muster, along with my home and work phone numbers.
Police had better things to do.
Image courtesy of Matt Popovich and http://unsplash.com
In the ensuing days,
we began getting reports of the thief passing our checks in the greater San Diego area.
We had changed the account numbers, and the bank was working with us to allow payment on legitimate checks that had not yet cleared. I called the police detective assigned to my case every few days. He had nothing.
But you're not going to believe what happened next.
It was a clear lesson in government corruption.
Within human government, normal incentives are all backwards. Government "services" run on "Alice in Wonderland" logic.
We began getting collection letters from the businesses where the crook forged our checks. Telling the stores about the theft was not sufficient.
In their eyes,
we were the criminals. We had to provide each business with copies of the police report and a notarized affidavit that we had not written the check. OK, fair enough.
Victimized at every turn.
Image courtesy of Adriano Gadini and http://pixabay.com
But I thought the police would want to know where the thief was passing checks. It's their job to bring bad guys to justice, right? You'd think the cops would want to go after the criminal who stole my van, used my credit card, and was passing bad checks all over town?
Wrong! The police detective refused to accept any information from me. "You're not the victim" he told me. "The stores where the checks were passed have to file a report."
Say what???
That's funny, I sure felt like a victim. And, why wouldn't the cop who was supposed to be pursuing this thief want information on his whereabouts?
So I called the businesses that were ripped off. Surely they would want to report this to the police?
Wrong again.
The stores all had "check guarantee" services to compensate them for loss. Too busy. Not interested.
No frickin' wonder people are going around stealing cars and passing bad checks! The whole freaking government/corporate/legal system is set up to support the crooks in their efforts! The entire system is cleverly designed to make life miserable for innocent victims.
The system drained my wallet.
Image courtesy of Nikolay Frolochkin and http://pixabay.com
But wait, there's more...
After losing my van, credit card woes, bad checks, and devil-may-care police, the crowning indignity came about a month and a half later: The police found my van.
Well, not really.
It wasn't exactly the police who found it.
The van had been abandoned in the parking lot of a small group of shops about a mile from where it was stolen. One shop owner had finally become irritated enough to call the police.
And so, the police let me know right away. I joyfully climbed into my Surfmobile and drove it home, right?
That might have happened in a better world.
The cops called their towing buddies.
Image courtesy of Jim and http://pixabay.com
Here's what actually happened.
Rather than call me, police called their crony towing service to come and haul my van to a storage yard. Apparently, it was too much bother to be sure I had been informed that the van was found. Instead, an automated police recorded voice called my work number late in the evening on Christmas eve. I was not there to get the message, having just gone home for Christmas vacation.
Two weeks later when I returned to work, I heard the message for the first time.
In order to get my own van back, I had to pay the police contractor towing service the cost of towing plus the cost of two plus weeks of storage.
Rather than protect and serve,
the government system extracts the maximum possible revenue from those it pretends to help. It supports cronies in the towing and storage business who profit from the hardship of citizens. These revenue gathering activities keep police detectives too busy to actually investigate thefts or to bring thieves to justice.
Those are the facts of my case. I hope you fare better wherever you are living.
There's a glimmer of light in this tale.
One of the things lost with the van was my personal study bible. It was filled with a lifetime of hand-written notes and cross references. I had been grieving the loss of my bible as much or more than all else.
Thank Jesus, my bible was still there in the van, along with its countless hours of study notes. God is good.
~FIN~
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Sounds like all the Police are trained at the same place?
I think it's all about incentives...
Under the flawed concept of human government, the false theory that some men or organizations are somehow magically qualified to "rule" over others by force, the job first of all tends to attract the worst possible people, and second of all, rewards all the things that bring in revenue (think: traffic tickets.)
It doesn't reward actual crime-solving or restitution of property.
<deep sigh>!
Not sure how long ago this was, but it is still happening. Let me put it like this:
A guy had a check for 25 grand on his desk at home. The home was broken into and check stolen. The check was a death benefit from an insurance company. Police take a report and not too bothered coz no one was hurt. Guy calls insurance company to report the check stolen and place a stop. Doesnt get name of person spoke to. Thief goes to a Payday Loan and We Buy Gold place. They cash check. Cops dont care, Insurance company and check place dont care. Thief has the cash, guy is screwed. Hiring a lawyer would eat up most of the money. I just couldnt believe how the cops were just not bothered.
The cops have no basic incentives in place to make them care.
If the cops were private, performance-based security specialists, their jobs would depend on them helping people recover stolen goods.
Thanks for sharing this very sad story... :O
that is a really brutal experience, @creatr. I felt as if it happened to me as I was reading the story. The only thing worse than having things stolen is being accused unjustly of theft - It happened to me once in grade three and believe it or not, has haunted me ever since.
I can certainly believe that!
As children, I think we have an extremely strong sense of justice and fairness... Now that you mention it, I should probably go back in time (in my thinking) and consider if there aren't any lingering feelings like that which might be hampering me now.
Thanks for empathizing with me on this, John... ;)
I can totally understand your frustration, some like that happened to me last year. It was online, I got a text saying my order from hungry house has been accepted, I was in shock I hadn't ordered anything, I checked online there was an order for £26, 2 seconds later I got another text this time it showed they had spent nearly £100, I couldn't believe it, I phoned Hungry House to tell them what was going on, Plus I was in the north east they had ordered from London. they said they would do some check so I then phoned the police saying shall I cancel these orders before they are picked up, or the police could be there waiting, I was shocked when they said No its not the takeaways fault and I will get full refunds, they weren't interested in anything else, made my blood boil
Yes, maddening how little they care, isn't it?
Thanks for sharing your complementary story!
I hate thieves they really wind me up
That sounds like a real mess. i am sorry for what you went through. Excuse my language however you experienced what I call the bullshit factor. It is alive and well in our world. Attitudes, sin and apathy govern it. The police did not make it easy on you. I have been out of town for the past week and away from the internet. I am back with a few posts and glad to be here. Again that was quite the story and thanks for sharing. - Troy.
I appreciate your sympathizing, Thanks.
Welcome back to Steemit, Troy. ;)
I feel like it is the same in every single country, where I'm from is lrobably worse. Now I live in the UK and i hear stories like that quite often happening there aswell. Seems like the whole world abandons you in situations likw this. Hope you recover fast from what you have lost .. mostly nerves i guess after all you've been trough while searchin for your property..
Hello, George, nice to "meet" you here. Thank you for reading and commenting.
This happened to me quite some time ago, and so I am (mostly) recovered, other than as you can probably see I have very little use or respect for human government. I believe that most of us are pretty able to care for ourselves without the meddling of people who think they should be able to rule over us.
Thanks again for your kind comments, and best wishes here on Steemit. ;)
Nice to meet you too and I'm happy to hear that! Coming from a poor country with very corrupt government i know where you are coming from with this and I can't stress out enough how much i despise people "ruling" like this stealing even the little honest earnings people have.
I read somewhere once and am not sure if it is true that 97% of all fraud was not even investigated because it requires too many resources and instead these losses are underwritten by insurance companies which then increase premiums for every day men and women. And as far as the police go, it is essential that we come to realise that they are doing two jobs. The first being to protect and serve but the other being revenue collection which takes up so much of their tiem they have very little left to do the protecting and serving job. :(
Sorry to hear about your misfortune @creatr but I am glad you managed to get your bible back. :)
Thanks for sharing this story with us. Have a wonderful day my friend!
Hi, Tony, and thanks for reading and for sharing your sympathetic comments! :D
"the government system extracts the maximum possible revenue from those it pretends to help." so true!
Thanks for reading! :)
Despite the fact that it's certainly not the kind of story anyone would like to experience, I've enjoyed the read all the way through!
And I'm thanking @merej99 for her recent challenge as otherwise, I would probably never find you.
P.S.
Please don't be surprised if you find my comments (in case I would still be able to post them) on some of your older articles, as I see I have a lot to read here. 🙂
Hello, @ana-maria,
I'm so glad you've enjoyed reading this. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
I also appreciate @merej99 and her recent challenge. :)
And I will be surprised in the best possible way if you have comments about any of my articles, no matter how old they may be. :) Have you discovered my Library of everything I've published on Steemit? Just click on the GIF below. I will be very happy to talk with you about anything there you may find of interest. ;)
😄😇😄
Thank you, @creatr! 🙂
When you said that "sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!" - you remind me of another saying, that at first glance might seem to state the opposite.
Luigi Pirandello, from "Six Characters in Search of an Author"
Nice quote! Thank you for sharing it with me, @ana-maria! :D
Unbelievable! Except that I totally do believe it :-(
Yes, sad, but all too true...
Thanks for reading, dear! :)
Crazy story man! Happy thta you found your van and your bible ;-)
Thank you, friend. It was quite a crazy time.
Great post my man! What a ride...
SIdenote, I'm cleaning up who I'm following and limiting it to those creating adult social sports leagues material (darts, pool, bocce, disc golf, surfing, stuff like what this post is about).
I'm resteeming these creators and I just added you.I'm not asking for a follow you/follow me. I'm only interested in following/followers who are actually engaged in this subject and these sports. Articles/Posts on how-to practice, to tournament reporting, to the zen of just 'doing' and everything in between...
If you get the chance, check out some of my stuff @swansed . If you like it, consider maybe doing the same thing. As a group, we can resteem each others content, and slowly grow an audience with actual interest in what we put out instead of the random 'follow for follow' crowd which won't give any of our future articles a second glance...(let's be honest, that's where the frustration comes in)
Look it's a bitch getting noticed here unless you are posting general content or fluff. Let's build momentum with these niche sports and find the audience we came here to find!
Also, looking to do some Facebook and reddit recruiting campaigns in their niche groups to pull in some new eyes from other social media outlets. There's a chance we could try this as a group also and bring in some new eyes to look at what we are cooking up....
The more contributors we bring in, the louder our voices...
Regards
🎱
Swansed of theLEAGUEFEED
Thank you for the Re-Steem. Please stay in touch.
Luckily, your life lesson only cost you time, money and some inconvenience.
The lessons are priceless.
Government agencies exist for maintaining the status quo (of which you, poor tax paying citizen, are not a part of).
Yes, it only cost me a portion of my life... ;)
One of the "life lessons" is to avoid entanglements with the organizations (read government) that charge such a high fee in terms of wasted life and time...
Glad your bible and notes were in the van. This story really got my blood boiling.
I have a missionary friend that was pioneering a church in CapeTown South Africa some years back. In the middle of the night, he heard some people in his shed 20 yards away from the back door of the house. There were three people in his stuff. Instantly Pastor called the authorities! The person who answered the phone in their South African accent said, "we have no available sheriff to help you." Pastor said "If you get here quickly you can catch them in the very act!" as he watched patiently through the window.
"Sorry, we have no one available"
He hung up the phone. 5 minutes later all the while the thieves methodically stacking Pastors boxes in preparation to export, made a drastic decision take matters in to his wise masters hands.
"You can send the coroner, I all three of the guys I just called you about, the ones who were in my shed, they are ready for pick up." He told the SA sheriff.
With in about 5 minutes every sheriff in South Africa was at Pastors house. They caught the men red handed loading his belongings in to their minivan. When the dust settled, the main sheriff, with frustration in his voice said "I thought you said there were three dead men in your back yard?" Pastor replied "Thought you said you didn't have anyone available to assist me"
You have got to write this up and publish it as a story! Totally awesome! :D
Thanks for sharing, and please do write it up on your blog? ;)
cuts an pastes into blog LOL
i read your story this is the problem many are facing everyday.
cool guy,like your story!