Yes I'm a dickhead; but, police and legal types advice por favor

Don’t be put off by the police.

From memory and an out of date knowledge of the Court process:-

You always remain free to pursue a civil action against the offender, even if the police appear unwilling – and if you have reason to believe either the store, the bank, or the police have the offenders details stored somewhere, can compel them ultimately to provide them for the purposes of Court Proceedings. IE you are going to issue small claims court proceedings and require an address of the defendant for service. – It doesn’t need to be your problem how “problematic” it is to get them, only that if they refuse, you may make an application to the Court, which they are duty bound to obey unless they have a suitable reason for not doing so and persuade a judge to that effect.

If they don’t defend it, or provide the details, you can then enforce the judgement of the application against them.

I may be wrong on all this though –

to be fair the cost is more than you think id be guessing near to a thousand so far

Nope; case handled by a ‘telephone investigator’ who rung the store. The store already knew about it as I’d raised it with them first, and they’d sent me to the police with an apologetic “love to help but y’know, data protection”. CCTV footage emailed across to said investigator. No warrant carded police officers have been involved so far. Very cost effective investigation so far, as it goes. Of course, it’ll be shit value for money if they just give up though.

PCI data security standard – Tesco don’t ever get access to the full card number. I wouldn’t want them to either, they are some of the last people I would trust with my bank numbers.

So they claim Data Protection but hand over the CCTV footage ? Hypocrites ! The Police can request it under section 29, but Tesco are under no obligation to disclose.

Do you have a copy ? Get a still and make a Have You Seen This Woman Poster and put it up outside with your number and a £50 reward leading to finding her. Somebody will know who she is….

P.S – and the cost of the investigation ? Excuse me, but I believe the police forces are funded to to ahem, investigate crime ? I know this is petty and unlikely to lead to a conviction, but that doesn’t mean we all give up entirely.

Hi Hels, thanks for the posts. I haven’t got a copy; because ‘data protection’. Otherwise I’d be all over the wanted poster idea, that would be ace! Just to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that the police were about to give up, I’m really happy with their response, it’s been friendly, they have taken the issue seriously and dealt with it in a commensurate way so far. The civvy investigator seems to be approaching a dead end now though, which is frustrating (for her as well as me) considering it’s something for which digital records obviously exist.

so far you have cost us the the tax payer more than £50 in resourses (sic) for your mistake !

Hold on, why are weyou blaming the victim here. I’ll accept costs are incurred, but these are because someone took something which did not belong to them. If you want to blame someone for costs, it should be the thief.

Catch on!

Equally, Im glad supermarkets don’t routinely share bank bank and transaction details with the police and similar. That’s a bit too far into lack of privacy for me.

Imagine you left your bike outside tesco, and she jumped on and peddled off…..not a crime?

Of course it would be, as is this.

Opportunistic thievery is still thievery…

You don’t just steal someone else’s money unless you’re scum.

So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in ?

No nor did the lady from the supermarket !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding

So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in?

Well, yes I would actually. Fairly sure someone might miss £50, and it would be the right thing to do. Thanks for the insight into your personal morality system though; atheist by any chance? 😉

Bit of a grey area when it comes to a premeditated crime, perhaps dishonest on the part of the woman and she really should have handed it in. She’ll be the type to go radio rental if it happened to her

You made a mistake, we’ve all done it. Move on and chalk it up to a bad day

for the record id never take money from a supermarket thingy- has bad karma written all over it !

I have a £10 note in my Rain coat that I found in March on the street – when I see someone/cause that needs it then I shall give it to them, so far I haven’t found that cause- same if I found a £50- KARMA !

Bit of a grey area when it comes to a premeditated crime, perhaps dishonest on the part of the woman and she really should have handed it in.

No one is suggesting ‘pre meditated’. But ‘taking with the intent to permentently deprive’ is pretty much the definition of theft. It is mitigated by the fact that she didn’t go out with that intention, but aggregated by how easy it would have been to return the money to the owner; that’s what the customer service desk is for, and it’s what a decent person would do. I’m perfectly happy to chalk it up to experience, it was the supermarket who were fairly vocal in their encouragement to report it as a crime, and I haven’t chased the police on this at all, she keeps ringing and updating me. My reason for posting was to get a better idea of the hurdles faced by the police in this instance (seeing as the investigator seems less than sure).

As for victim blaming, well I’d usually be very vocally against such a thing, but I was a blithering idiot for leaving £50 alone in Asda, wasn’t I? Lol.

Good grief.

What’s pre meditation got to do with it? It is theft by finding, there were reasonable steps she could taken (like hand it to the nearest shop assistant). The offence is made out.

Easiest route for investigator is DPA request for loyalty card info if used. They use this to identify self scan shoplifters who ‘forget’ to scan expensive items. To get a production order from Court they need to show theyve exhausted other reasonable lines of enquiry (such as the CCTV) as the court ordering a bank to release info is a serious intrusive step.

No loyalty card scheme at Asda. Civvy investigator will be circulating image of offender to local policing teams. Don’t think there’s much else she can do. Bummer.

Just tell the cops that rather than spend £1000s on an investigation, they may as well just give you £50 as it’s cheaper 😀

unfitgeezer – Member
So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in ?

Yes I would and yes I have.

1) Diamond ring,
2) Wallets and cash,
3) iPhone,
4) Dumped bikes,
5) Numerous keys.

Only a scumbag would steal but that’s my projection of my own positive values (not everyone shares these, fair enough).

You carry on keeping what you find but don’t think everyone is tea-leaf like you either.

Every Police station has a lost property department.

I still have the letter thanking me for handing their wedding ring in. The £10 cheque reward I found attached to the letter bounced lol.

Frankenstein – Member
unfitgeezer – Member
So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in ?
Yes I would and yes I have.

1) Diamond ring,
2) Wallets and cash,
3) iPhone,
4) Dumped bikes,
5) Numerous keys.

Only a scumbag would steal but that’s my projection of my own positive values (not everyone shares these, fair enough).

You carry on keeping what you find but don’t think everyone is tea-leaf like you either.

Every Police station has a lost property department.

I still have the letter thanking me for handing their wedding ring in. The £10 cheque reward I found attached to the letter bounced lol.

quite obviously you didn’t read my last reply !

extremely rude calling me a thief which I am not ! Learn to fling read first mate !

extremely rude calling me a thief which I am not !

In fairness you did kinda imply that either I was a thief (by finding) when you said

So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in ?
No…

Or at least that it was morally okay to keep someone else’s money in certain cases. So, touché, I reckon.

It was a rhetorical question not aimed at anyone in particular.

anyway I’m sure Frankenstein is a big boy or girl and can stick up for themselves !

I’m outta here like any usual STW post certain people don’t read all the posts and wade in shouting their gobs off.

Have a pleasant eve

I walked up to a cash point a good few years ago
The screen read ” Do you require another service?”
I could have pressed ‘Yes’ , then ‘cash’, then ‘£200’
Instead I pressed ‘No’ and took the ejected card into the bank and explained to the teller what had happened.
I am going to heaven arent I?

So if you found a £50 note on the pavement would you hand it in ?

Yes and have done so when my son was 8 he found £250 on the ground, handed it to the local police station and a lady claimed it and came round to thank him for it, including £50 unexpected reward.

And it appears you would too, so you say, this makes it a very strange rhetorical device, especially as you answer it ‘no’ for someone imaginary person. Unless of course the response were not as you expected

What was that about