Crime Stories: Got One?

Someone stole my stapler... but I got it back. I'll be emailing you my "real" crime story for La Loop.

Our house was burgled when I was a kid. I walked in the house (we were latchkey kids before the name was coined), and the phone was ringing... it was my mom, who said "Don't panic, but things look different around the house. Some people came in and took a lot of our stuff, but don't worry!" My siblings and I looked around and there was no huge, panelled stereo, no albums, no couch... and our poor beagle was cowering under the bed. They even took the steaks from our freezer!

I was bummed 'cos all my Patridge Family albums were taken, and angry that they'd frightened our dog.

Apparently, a few people noticed a moving van in our driveway, and assumed it was legit -- they must've staked out our house for a few days, to figure out the right time to get inside.

I've been mugged twice. One purse snatching was successful, the other time not so much.

I believe that many of you heard of my crime story on the news; my sister and her husband were driving to Wirth Park to ski earlier this year when a gunman fired into their vehicle.

Terry lost her left eye as a result.

I believe that many of you heard of my crime story on the news; my sister and her husband were driving to Wirth Park to ski earlier this year when a gunman fired into their vehicle.

Oh man...did they ever catch the bastards??

I had the strange experience of being robbed last week while on a road trip by the most considerate criminal. My car was broken into while parked in Brooklyn. The thief took my discman, my brother's I-pod and some Cd's. When we found the car though, all the food we had was still there, the bag of change we had for tolls was there, no one popped the trunk to take our clothes, no windows were broken and the thief even locked the doors after them! In fact, I'm pretty sure they left the car cleaner than they found it since much of the road-trip garbage we left about had been swept from the dashboard or thrown in the back. I kept feeling somehow grateful that the crook was so considerate when stealing my stuff . . . but they still stole my stuff! What's wrong with this picture?

Oh man...did they ever catch the bastards??

No.

There has been several other random shootings on the same corner and the same area.

Minneapolis is in melt-down.

Minneapolis now has an international reputation for out-of-control crime.

See the british magazine The Economist Murder most common

THE streets of north Minneapolis do not display the normal signs of lawlessness. Windows are mostly free of iron bars, lawns are clipped and there is little graffiti. Sweeping the pavement outside his house in the morning, though, George Roberts occasionally finds a bullet. And some properties are pockmarked with scattered holes. What the local gunmen lack in accuracy they make up for in enthusiasm.

Last year Minneapolis had 49 homicides. So far this year 41 people have been killed, most of them shot in the street by men in search of money or drugs, or with a score to settle. The level of violence in this city of 370,000 is "off the chain", according to Lee Edwards, who investigates murders. Minneapolis's homicide rate is now almost twice that of New York. And it is moving in the wrong direction.

I also noted the Economist article. There's another today that suggests the same trend. A new Justice Dep't. report shows while crime overall is pretty level, homicides and firearm violence jumped up for the first time in a decade. The surge was especially prominent in the Midwest, with the murder rate up 5.8% between 2004 and 2005. I have yet to see any convincing theories for *why* the Midwest is having problems. Any ideas?

Sure, the midwest does not take violent crime seriously. Minnesota has the lowest incarceration rate in the country.

We really do need to understand how bad things have gotten here. I seriously cannot understand how Amy Klobuchar can be running for any other office or even showing her face in public.

In Minneapolis, it is the feds who prosecute all the serious crimes.

There is moral lesson to be found in the case of Big Mama Braxton. Back in the days of Tony Bouza, Big Mama Braxton sat on the chest of a teenage girl and pumped round after round into her face.

It was our first modern gang slaying. Tony Bouza denied that there were gangs in the city or that the slaying was gang related.

Now here is the scary part; Big Mama was slapped on the wrist with a seven year sentence to quilting in Shakopee. I am not sure whether she served the whole sentence but when she was let out she encountered another girl walking down the street with a bag of CD's and eviscerated her during the robbery.

Extremely violent people are plea-bargainded down in Hennipin County on a daily basis, and extremely violent people with long, long, long records of insane violence are released into our community because we refuse to incarcerate them.

One thing I'd like to add to your point Greg is that the problem may not be just that people aren't locked up long enough. Seven years is a long time. But the hope would be that during those seven years she would have been rehabilitated and ready to come back to the outside world without incident. Obviously that wasn't the case, but one would hope that prison would change people and help them be better when they left than when they went in.

Tuesday, Sept 19, 2006.

Today I was accused of a crime I did not commit. For people who work as
I do in the service sector, this is a common occurrance. When they find
they are missing something, customers are very quick to accuse the
various service workers around them. Where I work, we almost always
find the item on the floor or in the customer's pocket or in some nearby
crack or crevice.

Today was different. Today I was called to my manager's office and
confronted with security camera pictures. One picture was of me
reaching into a bag that does not belong to me. The other was of me,
shortly afterward, placing my hand in my pocket. The first is not
unusual. In the course of my work I search thoroughly many bags that do
not belong to me. That is part of my job. The second is somewhat
unusual as, for professional reasons, we're not supposed to have our
hands in our pockets. I've learned to no longer place them there when
relaxing or indeed for any reason other than to store or remove
something. The incident in question happened nearly a month ago, and
frankly, I no longer have any idea why I might have put my hand in my
pocket.

I assured my managers of this several times, but left the room with the
distinct impression that they did not believe me whatsoever. My only
ray of hope in the entire confrontation was that they did say they are
primarily concerned with retrieving the item in question, a gold
necklace of largely sentimental value. However, I have to say I'm not
entirely sure I believe them. The managers who confronted me don't have
the best reputation for treating their workers fairly, and their eyes
certainly didn't betray an ounce of sympathy.

Some of you I'm sure will say the first question I should ask myself is,
"do I need a lawyer?" However, the first question that came to my mind
was, "how much do I actually like my job?" I'll not beat around the
bush. The answer is "not much." Losing this job would not by any
stretch of the imagination be the worst thing that could happen to me.
In fact it might well reveal hitherto obscured and potentially fruitful
avenues in my life, and kick my rear into them in no uncertain fashion.

Under the intimidating gaze of unfriendly managers, I found myself
promising to spend my days off searching my house and my car for any
sign of a gold necklace that I'd be willing to bet the farm is not
there. It's not even practical as I no longer live in the house I lived
in at the time, and I own three cars at the moment more than one of
which has holes in its floor. Should I bother to even try? I will be
doing some research along legal lines regardless. I've also decided to
write this up for the Loop. Beyond that, I'm not sure it's even worth
wasting my days off thinking about, much less doing anything about this.
I'm certainly not enthused about spending my time fighting to keep a job
I dislike, much less in an environment where managers treat workers in
the fashion I was treated today.

So, what do you all think I should do? What would you do if you were
me? Has anything like this ever happened to you? What did you do?
What happened? What do you wish you had done? What do you wish you
hadn't done?

I had a freind who robbed banks. He is in prison now, lucky to be alive. He is even one of the main charachtors in a popular real crime novel. I mostly knew him from parties back in the college days, many many years ago, but he did spend a few days and nights at my cabin once. It was in his bank robbing period. I didn't know he was robbing banks back then.

Once a few years ago I told some of my neighbors at a party about my bank robber. I suggested to them that I had seen him one night burying something that looked like a small metal box in the rough unturned area next to my garden. Unfortunately they already knew I was looking for some help extending my garden in that direction, so none of them took me up on the offer to let them look for it. I even offerred to loan them a shovel, but no takers.

I guess it really is true that crime doesn't pay. But if you want to come over some time and dig for treasure, I'll be glad to show you where I want my garden next year.

I own a small business and I had a serial bad check writer play the business for a week (until we got the first check from the bank). I remembered him, he looked odd and he always traveled with a little girl. But, it is common to see the same people again and again in our coffeehouse. I took one of the checks and even checked his license and we had a brief conversation (although reluctant on his part).

When the letter came from the bank, I knew which guy the bad checked belonged to. It was in the beginning and the business was operating on a tight margin and this represented a considerable sum. The bank acknowledged he was writing bad checks all over and that there was no money in that account and I would most likely never recover the amount.

I was angry. I called the phone number on the check and I knew I was talking to this man but he denied it was him. I felt sorry for the little girl that he dragged along on his crime spree. O.k. so it wasn't a violent crime, but it was violating.

Glad to see we're still sparking conversation here! I'm sure we've got more crime shows in our future.

My windows were busted out of my car at the park and ride while I was at work one day. I had forgotten my cellphone plugged in. I guess someone decided they wanted it. It was $300 to replace the windows in my car over a $50 cellphone.