• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

Mom was robbed

cabaiguan juan

Vote Panda 2024
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
9,441
I have had a similar situration to chainer's. My mom had a guy house/dog sit for her while she was in the hospital getting hip replacement surgury. When she came home, she walked thought the apartment with him to check and see if anything was out of place. He left and then she started noticing things going ary. Apperantly, before my mom was released form the hospital, he had taken a few dish towels, soaps, did not clean the pots which had cooked in but instead put them back in the drawers, ordered Pay-Perview, downloaded a new version of AOL onto my mom's computer and was looking at porn sites, and finally picked the lock on my mom's filing cabinet and took a bunch of cash form her. In doing so he also had access to all of her finacial documents and jewlery which apperently are all still there. My mom found out about it and called the cops (After 14hours! I'm so pissed at her about waiting so long!) and the cops said they could not dust for fingerprints, nor could they arrest him on charges, that she would have to take this to civil court. This doesn't sound right to me, and i was wondering if anyone else could advise me on this matter?
 
Wow. I can't offer any advice, just a "hopefully things work out for your mom. That is bullsh*t!" Good luck
 
No idea, but that's sad to hear about man. Happens every day though.. Prayers sent hoping you all get it all figured out.
 
sorry to hear that Jon. Hopefully some Police authorities that are part of CP can chime in here. Hope things turn for the best. If you need anything, holla at me.

David
 
You know what I am going to ask some of my cop buddies and see what they say. I am thinking it is a little bit of BS on their side.
 
I agree with these posts that this sounds like a bunch of bull. If she got robbed, how come the cops can't do anything? Even if he had permission to be in the house, he still robbed her. Don't know why she can't file charges.
 
I would see if any of the CP members are in law enforcement and see what you can find out from them.

I am sorry to hear this happened to your mom. People can be scum.

Hang in there.
 
I have had a similar situration to chainer's. My mom had a guy house/dog sit for her while she was in the hospital getting hip replacement surgury. When she came home, she walked thought the apartment with him to check and see if anything was out of place. He left and then she started noticing things going ary. Apperantly, before my mom was released form the hospital, he had taken a few dish towels, soaps, did not clean the pots which had cooked in but instead put them back in the drawers, ordered Pay-Perview, downloaded a new version of AOL onto my mom's computer and was looking at porn sites, and finally picked the lock on my mom's filing cabinet and took a bunch of cash form her. In doing so he also had access to all of her finacial documents and jewlery which apperently are all still there. My mom found out about it and called the cops (After 14hours! I'm so pissed at her about waiting so long!) and the cops said they could not dust for fingerprints, nor could they arrest him on charges, that she would have to take this to civil court. This doesn't sound right to me, and i was wondering if anyone else could advise me on this matter?

Hmmm... This is a two-fold answer here, one that may confuse and frustrate you.

It IS a civil matter, but then again it isn't.


Your mom entered into a verbal "civil agreement" when she allowed the male into her house, giving him implied full access to the house by entering an agreement that stipulated he would basically "occupy" the residence (i.e.-"House-sit/Dog-Sit") during the time she was in the hospital. As far as the porn sites, the updated version of AOL, the uncleaned pots: That's ALL a wash. No real damage has taken place, besides possible virus corruption, and your mom feeling a little violated, but there is no real "fiscal" value that can be placed on looking at porn sites.


The dish towels and soap dishes are a civil matter, and not a criminal matter. Imagine if you let your friend into your house to spend the night. You wake up the next morning and he ate some of your cereal and took your morning paper. It is not a burglary because he had full access to your residence, is a known occupant, and was allowed access. I don't know if I am explaining this right, but it is simply not criminal.


Regarding the loss of the towels and soap dishes, assuming that your mother purchased each soap dish and towels for $5 USD each, and this guy took say...5 of each, you're looking at about $50 USD in a total loss. To even file a civil lawsuit, you're looking at upwards of $200 in court fees to get the ball rolling, and it's a case your mother may or may not win. You'd have to have receipts showing proof of purchase, your mother would have to be able to articulate where each of the towels and soap dishes were, colors, models, etc.


The only thing I can see as criminal is the theft of cash from a locked drawer. A locked container expresses implied privacy, and there is an expectation of privacy when an individual places property into a locked container. That said, your mom is going to have to be able to know exactly how much and which amounts were in the locked drawer. It is going to be very hard to prove that he took your mother's cash from the locked drawer because I am assuming she does not have the serial numbers on the cash bills? Also, the male could say that somebody else took it while he was gone due to the fact that he was only house-sitting, and not at the residence 24/7.


Lastly, the fingerprinting. It isn't like CSI, and it never will be, unless you have the Federal Homicide case of the year where the Government is going to spend $500,000 on evidence collection. Your local agency is not going to dust your mom's house for prints because: A.) The house in and of itself is considered a "high traffic" area, and will yield way too many prints to sift through, B.) The male was given access to the house, therefore his fingerprints being present on any piece of furniture is justifiable, C.) Due to the fact that your mother did not report the incident right away, the "crime scene" is seen as contaminated.


Your mother's best bet is to draw up papers to serve to this guy with her signature and a date, demanding payment for the items she believes he's taken. If he says no, then she can follow-up with the civil courts. As far as the cash theft, she needs to know amounts and how many of each bill, and make a Police Report documenting the theft. The Police may ask the male if he took it, but if he says no, there is currently no corpus to go out and arrest him based solely on your mom's statements, even with a private person's arrest.


Sorry about our mother's situation, this definitely sucks. Hopefully, I was able to answer a couple questions, and I apologize for the novel. Maybe Q_the_Cop can chime in, he's in the Dick Bureau and may have some more insight than I do regarding civil situations like this...
 
I see this a lot some city's our counties will not investigate a theft unless it is over a certain amount Like the city of Portland will not investigate unless it is over 500 bucks some city's like New your and DC will not investigate unless it is over 1000. It is a Sad situation sorry to hear your mom is going to have to go thought all of this. I linked the site on the other thread but here it is Link Link If he had time to get into her file cab. then no telling what info he has on her. She needs to call all three Credit Bur. and have them lock her credit down asap. It is a Pain in the ass but it will save you a pain in the end Also she can look into something like Life Lock LifeLock Link They are freaking amazing and have stopped a lot of fraud from happening. I hope this helps brother I will be praying this all gets resolved and hey if you ever want that guy to get lost in the middle of the woods take him out here to Oregon we will take him for a long walk with some good old Boys out in Eastern Oregon. They Like people that steal from little old ladies rp
 
I have had a similar situration to chainer's. My mom had a guy house/dog sit for her while she was in the hospital getting hip replacement surgury. When she came home, she walked thought the apartment with him to check and see if anything was out of place. He left and then she started noticing things going ary. Apperantly, before my mom was released form the hospital, he had taken a few dish towels, soaps, did not clean the pots which had cooked in but instead put them back in the drawers, ordered Pay-Perview, downloaded a new version of AOL onto my mom's computer and was looking at porn sites, and finally picked the lock on my mom's filing cabinet and took a bunch of cash form her. In doing so he also had access to all of her finacial documents and jewlery which apperently are all still there. My mom found out about it and called the cops (After 14hours! I'm so pissed at her about waiting so long!) and the cops said they could not dust for fingerprints, nor could they arrest him on charges, that she would have to take this to civil court. This doesn't sound right to me, and i was wondering if anyone else could advise me on this matter?

I'm not a cop, so I'll assume SD24 covered that side. However, if I were you (and if you have time), I would look into the porn. Perhaps that isn't all legal. See where he was searching, see if he saved anything. Even if he deleted it, you can recover it.

You never know, you could find something. If you do, call the cops again. Call your state's ICAC team (Internet Crimes Against Children). Call the FBI.

If you need help recovering deleted files, or finding searches, or recovering web history; shoot me a pm and I can refer you to another CPer who may be able to help.

There's probably nothing there, but.... Child Pornography isn't the Dept of Justice's #2 priority for no reason.
 
Souldog you left one piece out.
Just go shoot the guy in the face!

Sorry to hear about this Brother.
 
Here's a link that will give step by step instructions on how to freeze your Mom's credit. Please, do this. If he had access to her SS number, he can apply fro all types of credit. It takes a little time, but it's worth the trouble for peace of mind. Anyone can do this, I have mine frozen and I haven't had any theft problems.

http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html
 
Sorry to hear about this. I hope your Mom has recovered from the HR Surgery. As for the crime, so far the advice is great, follow it all. Some counties have an Elder Abuse/Crime Division that may help in a way that others cannot. My Grandparents were helped by this type of unit several years back & got extra help because theywere seniors.
Then if none of this works... the old-fashioned kneecap thing works wonders. ;)
 
Man that's real messed up, and i'm sorry that happened to her. Let her know that all you CP BOTL's send their regards, we wouldnt want this to happen to any of our families. Some people in this world can be such D!@& heads. with all the advice the other brothers gave you i would heed and remember you can allways check her credit for her once a yr for free at www.annualcreditreport.com, this is the site one of our lenders gives to students.
 
my biggest concern is her safety, both finaicial and physical. I'm heading down to her place today anyway, so it will be good to give her a hand with stuff and to give her a hug.
 
I have had a similar situration to chainer's. My mom had a guy house/dog sit for her while she was in the hospital getting hip replacement surgury. When she came home, she walked thought the apartment with him to check and see if anything was out of place. He left and then she started noticing things going ary. Apperantly, before my mom was released form the hospital, he had taken a few dish towels, soaps, did not clean the pots which had cooked in but instead put them back in the drawers, ordered Pay-Perview, downloaded a new version of AOL onto my mom's computer and was looking at porn sites, and finally picked the lock on my mom's filing cabinet and took a bunch of cash form her. In doing so he also had access to all of her finacial documents and jewlery which apperently are all still there. My mom found out about it and called the cops (After 14hours! I'm so pissed at her about waiting so long!) and the cops said they could not dust for fingerprints, nor could they arrest him on charges, that she would have to take this to civil court. This doesn't sound right to me, and i was wondering if anyone else could advise me on this matter?

Hmmm... This is a two-fold answer here, one that may confuse and frustrate you.

It IS a civil matter, but then again it isn't.


Your mom entered into a verbal "civil agreement" when she allowed the male into her house, giving him implied full access to the house by entering an agreement that stipulated he would basically "occupy" the residence (i.e.-"House-sit/Dog-Sit") during the time she was in the hospital. As far as the porn sites, the updated version of AOL, the uncleaned pots: That's ALL a wash. No real damage has taken place, besides possible virus corruption, and your mom feeling a little violated, but there is no real "fiscal" value that can be placed on looking at porn sites.


The dish towels and soap dishes are a civil matter, and not a criminal matter. Imagine if you let your friend into your house to spend the night. You wake up the next morning and he ate some of your cereal and took your morning paper. It is not a burglary because he had full access to your residence, is a known occupant, and was allowed access. I don't know if I am explaining this right, but it is simply not criminal.


Regarding the loss of the towels and soap dishes, assuming that your mother purchased each soap dish and towels for $5 USD each, and this guy took say...5 of each, you're looking at about $50 USD in a total loss. To even file a civil lawsuit, you're looking at upwards of $200 in court fees to get the ball rolling, and it's a case your mother may or may not win. You'd have to have receipts showing proof of purchase, your mother would have to be able to articulate where each of the towels and soap dishes were, colors, models, etc.


The only thing I can see as criminal is the theft of cash from a locked drawer. A locked container expresses implied privacy, and there is an expectation of privacy when an individual places property into a locked container. That said, your mom is going to have to be able to know exactly how much and which amounts were in the locked drawer. It is going to be very hard to prove that he took your mother's cash from the locked drawer because I am assuming she does not have the serial numbers on the cash bills? Also, the male could say that somebody else took it while he was gone due to the fact that he was only house-sitting, and not at the residence 24/7.


Lastly, the fingerprinting. It isn't like CSI, and it never will be, unless you have the Federal Homicide case of the year where the Government is going to spend $500,000 on evidence collection. Your local agency is not going to dust your mom's house for prints because: A.) The house in and of itself is considered a "high traffic" area, and will yield way too many prints to sift through, B.) The male was given access to the house, therefore his fingerprints being present on any piece of furniture is justifiable, C.) Due to the fact that your mother did not report the incident right away, the "crime scene" is seen as contaminated.


Your mother's best bet is to draw up papers to serve to this guy with her signature and a date, demanding payment for the items she believes he's taken. If he says no, then she can follow-up with the civil courts. As far as the cash theft, she needs to know amounts and how many of each bill, and make a Police Report documenting the theft. The Police may ask the male if he took it, but if he says no, there is currently no corpus to go out and arrest him based solely on your mom's statements, even with a private person's arrest.


Sorry about our mother's situation, this definitely sucks. Hopefully, I was able to answer a couple questions, and I apologize for the novel. Maybe Q_the_Cop can chime in, he's in the Dick Bureau and may have some more insight than I do regarding civil situations like this...


:thumbs:

The only other thing I can think of is:

D: No need to fingerprint if the ID of the suspect is already known, I'm assuming of course that your mom knew this guy before she let him house sit.

But, I agree that the only thing criminal here is the cash taken out of the lock box. Depending on how much cash was taken, here in KC, it would be classified as either a City Charge or State Charge. I'm also assuming that it was under $750, in which case it would be a City Stealing, and the guy would basically get a traffic ticket with a court date.

So, a lot depends on the local ordinances and state statues in your area.

Good Luck
 
I'd also recommend changing all your moms locks out, as he could have made a copy of the keys.
 
Jon you're a big guy, pay him a visit and lean on him!

Nothing like a personal visit to make things right ;)
 
Top