h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the way into uni today I noticed that the back of someone's garage had been knocked in, there was a large gaping hole in the brick work and the roof was looking precarious at best. Being the kind of person I am, and related to my earlier journal post, I went round to the front of the garage and tried to see if there was a number to link it to a house. (they are detached garages and there is a line of them that belongs to a group of houses in the road nearby) It had no number on it but the one next to it did.

When I got into the office I decided to try phoning the police to see if they could send someone round to investigate, after being redirected through their call system to various different departments I was finally told that they couldn't do anything about it as I wasn't the owner and I didn't know who the owner was. Could they send someone round to look? no they don't have the resources. Could they phone the council to find out who owns the garage (I had given them the number on the garage next to it)? no, that wasn't part of the procedure. They would however take my name, phone number and address and note that I had reported it and that they had done nothing about it

So next I phone the crime prevention (neighbourhood watch) office at the council and asked if they could do anything. Certainly madam, we have a warden in that area I'll phone him right away, can I take your number in case he needs further directions? sure.

So the police who are paid to investigate crimes refused to do anything and instead a voluntary warden will go and investigate, hopefully notifying the owners and preventing the theft of anything that might be stored in said garage.

Bureaucracy has a lot to answer for.

"If you know the name of the crime being committed please enter it on your phone's alphanumeric keypad."

"You have selected 'regicide'"

Okay, we may not be quite at the level pictured in the Simpsons, but it does seem that when you tell the police that a crime might have been committed they won't look into it.

One might even expect them to have the nouse to _say_ they're going to look into it and then not bother.
At least the caller would feel happier then and be none the wiser.
In the end they do have limited resources, they didn't seem to bother much when I had my house burgled three times - they have 1000 burlgaries a year in Brum, so this is not surprising.

It is some consolation that the warden rang me back later that day saying that they had found the owner and that he had been informed and that they had brought the police community person in too. So eventually they had to do something about it.

Dunno if that counts as consolation, but at least its a relief for you to know it's getting sorted.

It's consolation in the simple fact that it proves to me that the entire world hasn't gone bonkers!

Not the entire world, perhaps.

*DISCLAIMER: not for those who take offence at anything*

http://www.cagle.com/working/060206/zanetti.gif from http://cagle.com/

I wasn't sure how to view the 'offensive cartoons' situation at fist but I think that this sums it up quite nicely, as well as following on from the 'world going mad'

He, yup, those are about right.