Really good police work.

[Captain Hornet]

On Sunday Mrs Hornet and I decided to head to the grocery in town. We live out in the country in a pretty remote part of the county. We have been here for over thirty years and this is home. We were gone for two hours and came home to find our front door kicked open and off the hinges. We called the local Sheriff and after about a hour they came out.
The house had been ransacked and lots of our stuff stolen. they got four guns but only one was a S&W, a 29-3 nickel four inch. Our locked safes protected our large collection so they didn't get the good stuff. They took all the computers, a knife collection, all her medicines
and lots of other stuff. My shop out building had been opened and chain saws and lots of my tools were missing. About three hours later the Sheriff patrol stopped a car that had stolen tags from a large town about fifty miles away. During the stop the officer noticed a big S&W on the seat. Questioning of the three people and there were three different stories which just made the officers look more. They found lots of my stolen stuff in that car but there is still a bunch missing. The bad guys had a long rap sheet and two of them were out on bond. The Judge said they were in jail and not going anywhere. The first hearing well be in November . I know we well get our stuff back eventually and I am really impressed with our local Sheriff. I am glad to have scum like that in jail. David

 

[Rustyt1953]

I am glad that thing are now leaning in your favor and you seem optimistic that this wrong will be (for the most part) righted.

11 years ago I had my home broken into. The feeling of violation has never left me even though they caught the two perps.

 

[VaTom]

Sorry this happened to you and your wife. Glad the Sheriff's Department caught the bad guys. Take care.

 

[Maddog 521]

I hope the scunbags get lotsa time behind bars. There isn't much worse than a thief. Happy to hear about the good police work.

 

[sophie]

Hooray for your local Sheriff. Maybe you’ll get most of your belongings back. Bunch of scum bag, no good bums.

 

[arjay]

Nice! I’ve had my trucks broken into 5 times,my construction trailer once and my house once. It’s good to hear someone got their stuff back!!

 

[WardenRoss]

Sorry for your traumatic experience.

Thank God you were away and didn’t have to confront them.

Sounds like they cased you and knew what they were doing.

Glad your Sheriffs Department was on the ball.


,

 

[ColbyBruce]

I hope you get all of your property back in a timely manner. I was burglarized in 2011; it is an odd feeling that never leaves you.

 

[Vtgw938]

Used to be just good police work to "hunt" bad guys by running plates and using the motor vehicle laws to detect crimes and offenders. Even in states where legal, pre-text stops are now often looked down upon by the departments and prosecutors even for good felony arrests. Be glad your deputies were looking to make paperwork for themselves.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Just spitballing here. It took an hour to respond to an apparent burglary in progress?

 

[Doug M.]

Depending on where one is in the US, there are places that are so large and sparsely populated that there is not the tax base to staff rural LE at a level that allows for rapid response times. It's a reality of living a rural life. Most of the time I would be more concerned about fire/ems response, as it is a lot easier to resolve a criminal problem than a fire or a major medical issue.

I live/work in a decent sized county that has 85 or so miles of I 90. It is unusual to have 4 troopers on duty; and the SO usually has 3 and a supervisor for most shifts. Have a couple calls, even motorist assists, or a bad wreck, and it all goes sideways at a hell of a rate. We even have parts of the county that are covered for emergencies by adjacent counties due to the out of the way paths to those places.

It is not uncommon for a patrol deputy to cover 300 or more miles in 10 hours and use two tanks of gas.

As a reserve deputy in another county, I could sometimes be the only available car for large areas of the county, and certainly the only backup for several deputies. I may have driven like a mad man for 45 minutes as the only unit available for a prowler or similar calls.

 

[SMSgt]

Just spitballing here. It took an hour to respond to an apparent burglary in progress?

No, he said they came home to find the burglary done. Took an hour for LE after he called it in.

 

[Captain Hornet]

Yes, it took almost a hour for the Sherriff to get here after we called him and told him about the break in. That was no big deal. We are out in the rural part of the county and he had problems understanding where we were and how to get here. We are both in our 80's and understand we won't be here forever but we have done some things to harden our home. I was armed while waiting for the Sherriff so we did not think we were in any danger.

 

[mdf9183]

You are lucky that you live in a rural area. Most police depts. in larger cities no longer have a traffic division and no longer even make traffic stops. Years ago when I was working a lot of felonies were solved with a minor violation traffic stop. They have determined that traffic stops a racist.

 

[Alk8944]

As I have said for many years, even while I was still "On the job", "Another piece of dumb-luck Police work efficiently performed!"

Truth is much successful police work has a large component of "Dumb luck", just like this one. Not to mention just plain stupidity on the part of the 'Perps". ,,

Glad much of your property was recovered, hope the rest of it will be soon. The real damage done is to your sense of security and the violation!

 

[Rich Richardson]

A State Trooper friend says perps can’t help but blab about their crime on social media or at a bar.

 

[Muss Muggins]

No, he said they came home to find the burglary done. Took an hour for LE after he called it in.

Paraphrasing from the OP, He came home to see his front door kicked in, and LE took an hour to respond. I saw no discussion about the OP doing anything in the interim . . .

 

[StrawHat]

Ashtabula County, largest county in the state, we are lucky if 5 Deputies are on duty. And they mostly, by necessity, stay up North. 45-90 minutes is pretty good response time. Fortunately, most of the criminals stay in North county, they would rather confront a Deputy than an armed homeowner.

Kevin

 

[GypsmJim]

I live in a really safe neighborhood. Nevertheless, when I built my house and all the walls were open I decided to install a security system. Did it myself. Signs in the windows, etc. Never had a problem.

Nobody knows I have guns, or anything else in the house for that matter. When we go on vacation we don't tell anyone we are gone. The house has auto lights and such.

My buddy lives in the last house on a dead end street. Woods thereafter. I kept telling him he needs an alarm. Nah, too much trouble. When they go away the wife announces everything on farcebook. Once he came home and the side door was broken and half his guns and lots of other stuff was gone.

Now, he has a security system. But I don't know if the wife still talks...

 

[smoothshooter]

Keep vigilant in case some of the thugs dirtbag buddies come back some time in the future since now they know you still have lots of goodies, and they may not care whether you are home or not.