JC's finest
Anonymous post for fear of retaliation. Rant/solicitation for advice.
Last month my car was stolen from my driveway. It was a Kia/Hyundai which have known vulnerabilities for theft, but I had the recall update and assumed I was okay. I filed a police report and went about trying to continue my day to day sans car.
It sucks, but certainly isn't the end of the world. In terms of problems, this was decidedly first world.
Today I received a Notice of Summons from Jersey City Municipal Court. After being stolen my car had a ticket that went unpaid. I called the court house and informed them of the situation and a very helpful gentleman told me that I had accrued several unpaid parking tickets. He also did a statewide search and found that all my tickets were in JC, at the SAME address. I'm no detective, but I thought someone should swing by to see if they had my car.
Insurance has been a pain in the ass and financing a car would kind of suck right now. My car was less than five years old, had low miles, was well maintained and paid off. Given how infrequently I drive, I had about 10 more years on this car. Depending on the condition, I would like to have it back.
Foolishly, I believed that if the caper had basically been solved the authorities would be eager to help. Jesus tapdancing Christ was I wrong.
Initially I went in person to my local precinct. They explained how it wasn't their problem and that I should call dispatch and not just show up where they work. Not an ideal solution, but we moved the chains.
I called dispatch and here is where shit went off the rails.
I provided make, model, color and license number. I explained that I'd been ticketed multiple times in the same location and would like someone to just drive by and see if my car is there. Dispatch said they wouldn't send someone unless I went and found my stolen car.
That is insane. First, I don't need to go find criminals (seems like something a cop should do); Second, how the FUCK am I supposed to get there? It's eight miles away and MY CAR WAS STOLEN.
Dispatch put me on hold to talk to a supervisor. After five minutes they came back and told me to ask a friend for a ride, no cop could be bothered to look for my car.
I'm currently weighing two options for proceeding:
- Contacting my city councilmen and explaining that I'm fucking not Batman and that cops should look for criminals. However Boggiano has been reliably ineffective, incompetent, and lazy.
OR
- Shoving my thumb up my ass.
I imagine both outcomes will be the same, but one will put a smile on my face. What does Reddit think?
Edit
::Update::
My friend, who has tremendously less sense than I do, went to the address on the ticket and found my car.
Huge shout out to the police. They wake up every morning, put on the uniform and say "today I'll give it my bare fucking minimum".