Could the police have been less helpful?

[geminigirl]

So, if you followed this post, telling the story of how Cayne's bank card was ripped off, despite the fact that the card never left our possession, here's the next part of the story...

We called the Suffolk County police to make a police report, because the fraudulent charges were all made on Long Island, in two different precincts in Suffolk County and both places refused to take a police report. One even told me that we had to come back to New York to make the report. Another told me that the report had to be made in the jurisdiction we lived in (which made very little sense to me.) So we called the Orange County Sherriff who told us that no, the report had to be made in New York, where the card was fraudulently used. Having been long time residents of the area, I figured someone in my family (Mom, Dad, brother or brother's girlfriend) might know someone on the force who, even if that person couldn't take a report, would know who in the world I needed to call to get a report, since the bank needs us to do that. During that conversation, my brother or Dad suggested that we call the district attorney directly. Problem solved. I called the DA and before I'd even finished telling the woman on the phone what had happened she said, "Oh, no problem. Let me transfer you." She proceeded to transfer me to the intake line, I left a message with my contact info and Cayne's work and cell number's, and we'll go from there.

What bothers me isn't that the police refused to take the report over the phone...I've dealt with them enough before to know not to expect that, but that no one seemed to be able to tell me simply to call the DA directly, but instead I was told we had to come back to Long Island or just simply refused, and told, "No, we won't take a report for that over the phone."

We'll see where it goes from here. We can actually identify the two legitimate tranactions we made on Long Island...one was a gas station, the other was a candy shop, where I bought some candy making supplies. If in fact the card information was taken on Long Island (the most likely scenario) then it may not be too hard to figure out where it was taken. But, we'll see what the DA says and where it goes from here.

Comments

[aliki.livejournal.com]

I suppose I understand why police don't take reports over the phone (fraud, prank calls, etc) but it's frustrating, I hear you. When Bri got physically assaulted by an aggressive driver three years ago, we were in a town 200+ miles from where we lived. Clearly shaken up, we just drove home, then later thought to make a police report. We were told we had to show up in person, which we couldn't very well do for 2 days because we were working, and then the police threw us accusatory questions for why we took 3 days to make the report and then claimed they couldn't file it because it wasn't substatiantary enough (we didn't have full licence plate, and we didn't know who it was)

[geminigirl]

I can sort of understand it...but when I was visiting Philadelphia andmy car was broken into, the police took that report over the phone, or when I lived in Virginia and was calling to report gang-related graffitti in my apartment building, they took a report over the phone (an officer later stopped by to follow up with me, when they came to photograph it, but the intitial report was taken over the phone.) So I know that there are times when the police take reports over the phone, certainly.

It's honestly not the police refusing to take the report over the phone that bothers me...I can absolutely understand that. But since obviously the D.A. is dealing with this, and has a proceedure, one would think that any of the several officers I spoke with might have been able to give me that information. It would have saved me a great deal of frustration.

[wait.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you are so persistent!

[geminigirl]

I think it comes in the job description of "wife" for me. Cayne and I have very different ways of handling things like this, and dealing with the people involved. I'm persistent and firm about some things where Cayne isn't. We'll see where it goes from here though.

[palliddreamer.livejournal.com]

Gah, how frustrating. I'm glad you finially got somewhere. It's still my impression of NY that they're just incredible unhelpful.

[aelf.livejournal.com]

Interesting. When we had someone try to use our credit card fraudulently (I have no idea how they got the number. No charge ever went through because the merchant or CC company identified it as a questionable charge and immediately called us) I called the local police (the merchant was an internet presence and the ship to address was in CA, IIRC) and made the report. They didn't take the report over the phone though, they sent a nice young starter-cop to my house to take the report.

Sorry you're having to go through all this.