Okay here is the deal: I was working out at the local YMCA on thursday night. I got there at approx. 8:45 pm. Kept my keys in this little cubicle where everyone keeps em. Kept my cell phone right next to it too. Been doing it for the last 3-4 years without a single problem. There were only about 5 people working out that night. Alot of people were playing basketball in the other half of the gym though. Well at 9:45 I went to check to see if I had any messages on my phone. I didnt see my keys and started to panic. I had a semi-high amount of cash in the car. I never ever have that much except for that one freakin day. Well I run outside and notice another guy is panicking as well. His keys were also stolen. He was working out in the gym before and I had seen him the whole time. Both our cars were there, but his cell phone and wallet were stolen from his car. My cash was gone. I had an un-activated cell phone and a hand-held tv in the car which were not taken. One Latin lady who works at the Y said she saw (Suspect A) going into the other guys (the other guys keys that were stolen) car. She identified this Suspect A on the Y computer. This Suspect A has been coming to this Y for a few years now. I play ball with him sometime. I know him by name and we always talk about the Rockets whenever he is there. I have even given this guy Rocket tickets. Well she claims that he also stole something from her car a few weeks back. For some reason she did nothing about it and got back whatever she lost through insurance. Then John claims that his friends have told him that Suspect A is a thief. A cop came and listened to our stories. The Latin lady told him what she knew. He looks up his picture and address on the computer and said he will go check it out that very night. If he found anything out he would give us a call. I dont think this Suspect A did it. The fact that I think of him as a friend might be clouding my judgement. Besides, this happened at night and the Latin lady could not have seen him by closer then 40-50 yds. Then I stated thinking about who all was in there. Well there was this one guy (Suspect B). He is about 14-15 yrs old. Goes to my mosque. He had finished playing basketball at approx 9:20 pm. Then he came into the workout section of the gym. For about 15-20 min he was just roaming around doing absolutely nothing. He wasnt working out. He was on a cell phone the entire time. He even came up to me once (we obviously know who each other are being from the same mosque) and asked me what time the Y closes. Well I am thinking it is Suspect B. Why would he be walking around for 15-20 min doing nothing? Why would he be just talking on the cell phone staring at people? I am thinking he was a cell phone with one of his buddies outside. As soon as one of the people working out was about to leave, he would instantly tell his friend to get the hell out of the parking lot. Before this incident happened their was one more robbery that I knew about. This one guy had put up a flier in the mens restroom that his UH ring and a necklace were stolen from his bag while he was in the shower. Well I noticed a phat ring on this Suspect B's finger during Friday prayer. I was not able to get close enough to see whether it was a UH ring. But no kid could afford the ring I saw on this kids finger. He also was kinda avoiding me. We usually smile or say whats up to each other. The cops never called back which tells me it might not be Suspect A. What do you guys think I should do? Should I confront Suspect B and talk to him? Maybe in a roundabout way I can ask him if his keys were also stolen, etc..? Should I wait till next Friday and see whether the ring on his finger is one of UH? This way I get to hopefully catch him red-handed. But the longer I wait, the more chance that whoever did this spends all my money! Also YMCA informs me that very night that a couple of keys were stolen in the last 2-3 keys. But yet they fail to put up a sign warning any of the guests. I guess they were worried about their image. Also the Latin lady had claimed she had seen a black male (Suspect A) and a white male (Suspect C). Well I am thinking couldnt she have mistaken a brown male (who is Suspect B) for a black male in the dark from 40-50 yds away. She had also said the darker shaded male (black or brown) was really skinny. Well Suspect A is not really skinny. Suspect B is the skinniest guy I have ever seen. I am pretty sure Suspect B was also wearing a white tank and red shorts, which the Latin lady had also recalled. Basketball is usually played on Tues and Thurs at the Y. Should I just wait till then (as if I have a choice) and see who is wearing red shorts and a white tank who at the same time is skinny. Should I keep my keys over there again and keep a constant eye on it to see if something develops. Or should I confront Suspect B at that time and chit chat with him? By the way this suspect B probably sneaks into the Y. I dont think he is a member. Asking around last Fri, I found out he has sort of a shady character. Could it be Suspect A and B working together? Of course it could be someone else all together? What should I do?!?!??!
Call your cell phone. If he has it, he might answer. If he pawned it, at least you tried. I'd keep after the police. The longer they don't know what's going on, the less interested they might be. They're somewhat small crimes. I would definitaly keep an eye or two out. It's hard to say whether the kid will confess when confronted or not. You could plant a trap and wait!
You should bait the thief, hook him and reel him in. It's not hard to entice a thief to act again. Just be ready.
I served as a juror two weeks ago. The police called the cell phone in the stolen car and the criminal picked up. The criminal then, if you can believe it, arranged a meeting with the police officer (acting as a potential victim looking for a ride). He got caught hours later after a high speed chase, some fence jumping, and a 911 call. The cell phone lay underneath his crouched body in a dark nook. A ha. Evidence. The Criminal was found innocent, but that is because of a weird homosexual twist (like in six degrees of separation) and a torrid series of lies to the police. Anyway, the cell phone thingy could work. Good idea Princess.
Ummm......my cell was not taken. The other guys cell phone was taken. We tried repeatedly to call his cell, but no one answered. The police did not seem interested in the crime at all. The cop probably looked less interested then Cato of a month ago (okay a slight exagerration). I am still wondering what kind of trap to lay. I am pretty sure they will try this crap again on Tues night.
First, you have to determine if there is a pattern. Have the thefts occurred on the same day of the week? How far apart have they occurred? Etc., etc.... If there is a pattern, then get several of the biggest, baddest mofo's you know & wait for them in the parking lot. The first idiot that you see trying a key in several different cars, that's the fool that's going to get an a** whooping. Just kidding. Seriously though, I'd talk to the manager of the YMCA & make sure that he or she is very much aware of the problem & suggest that they make everyone aware of the thefts. You might as well face the fact that your money is gone. You don't want to go off half-cocked & confront someone that might be innocent. Do they let you carry a gym bag or fanny pack with you on the floor? I always keep my keys, wallet, & cell with me when I work out. I've seen people leave their keys at the trainers desk & have always felt that, that was asking for trouble. If you think about it, even though you lost some cash, you could've lost a lot more. For instance: If you're like me, you'll be in the gym anywhere from 1-2 hours. If I'm a thief, or team of thieves, I'll keep an eye out for someone that has just arrived at the gym & left their keys at the trainers desk. Once the trainer isn't looking, I casually pick up the keys & head for the door. I find your car (almost everyone has an alarm on their's these days) with the remote, open it up, find your insurance papers or some other identification as to where you live. At this point, I can do one of two things, 1) I can drive your car to your house & steal everything I want, or 2) I can have a copy of all your keys made & rob you at my leisure. Never leave your keys unattended. I'm sorry about your loss, but there are a lot of punks out there that are too lazy to work for a living & would rather steal from someone that does work.
Well I have learned my lesson about the keys. But I'll be damned if I give up on my money. It was over over $1000.00!!!!!!! I usually carry maybe 50 bucks with me, but that $1000.00 was suppose to be deposited in the bank the next day.
Ouch! I hear you, but be very careful about jumping to conclusions. Your best bet would be to try & determine if there is a consistent pattern of when they do it & try to catch them in the act. However, if you choose to do that, be aware that they may be armed. If the "Y" or some other business in the area has surveillance cameras, you might be able to use them to identify the thief. Good luck & be careful.
when you guys are playing basketball together "accidentally" knock him down and say "i know what you did little man and if you dont give it back ill do something so horrible to you that you'll wet the bed for the rest of your life" and then do some scary faces at him.
Thanks. The YMCA does not have any surveillance cameras. I have a camcorder that I could try to hide somewhere in the YMCA. But I think I'll get together with a couple of other people and try to bust them in the act. I also thought about how them might be armed. But these are 15 yr kids. But I guess you never know in todays world anyways. Diseased Monkey - you are a moron.
Cops will not do jack about it in fact if this was Houston Police your SOL they are the worthless bunch of people ever to put on a uniform. They are cowards and crooked just like a crook. I had a friend of mine get beat up by 6 Guys with pipes he was lying their bleeding on the ground and not one cop went and arrested the guys who were 100 feet away at a near by trailer park. Cowards. and to make a long story short only one guy was arrested for the whole crime commited! Now you tell me hows that for investigation!
Even if you catch the crook this time, you still have no evidence that they were the person who committed the act last time. However, if you are catch someone doing this again and have the balls to confront them, I'd throw it all out, give them a chance to give it back or kick the living crap out of them where no one else sees. Then in both cases it is your word against theirs.
R0ckets03, For some reason, this reminds me of a story I read not too long ago about a guy whose laptop and printer was stolen. He hit Usenet looking for suggestions on what to do and with some help (and to make a really long story short) was able to recover his things and ID the perps because he had a remote control app (Timbuktu) installed. He was able to take control of his pc, delete personal files, and eventually set up a trail which eventually led to the physical location of the laptop. You mentioned that one of the phones wasn’t activated. Was this a 'disposable' type phone or a ATT/Sprint/etc type phone. Most of these phones are incompatible with each other's systems and have unique identifiers which could be (possibly) be flagged. Maybe if they try to activate the phone, they eventually could be located. I wouldn't put too much hope in the police being of much assistance here. This was a pretty small theft, and is unlikely to warrant any investigation, just a report. But as was the case in the story I mentioned, the owner was able to accomplish enough investigating on his own to enable the police to follow up with the non-technical side. Who knows, worth a try maybe....? x34 BTW, here's the link to the iMac story. It's lengthy and technical, but interesting nonetheless... http://www.macscripter.net/un_ilojack.html
It was HPD and you are right, they are basically worthless. The cop I swear was just waiting to get home. He said he would check out Suspect A's house, but first he needed to buy batteries for his flashlight.
Pimp - not a bad idea. X34 - maybe you misunderstood me. My activated cell phone was not taken from the cubicle. My non-activated phone from the car was also not taken. I had a small hand-held tv in my car that was not taken. I also had some expensive clothes in the car that were not taken. I guess I am somewhat lucky. He could have taken both my phones, the tv and the clothes. All in all that would have been another $1500-$1750 worth of things. But still I am freakin pissed!!!!!!!!!
