As an ex military policeman i'd never thought i'd find myself losing respect for the police in this country but tonight i've just about been
tipped!
A friend of mine, a lady aged about 50 who is one of the nicest people you could wish to meet found a wallet a couple of weeks ago whilst booking some
coach tickets at the local coach station. She picked the wallet up and without opening it took it straight round to lost property and handed it in.
They did'nt give her a slip, they just said thanks and thats was that. She got her tickets and went on her way.
About a week ago she received a phonecall from the coach station asking if she had any complaints about the journey she took earlier. She did have a
minor complaint as a matter of fact so the coach station said we will send you some free vouchers. In order to get the vouchers, my friend was asked
for her name and address. This she did.
Then two plain clothes policemen arrived at her door a couple of days later asking if she had found a wallet. She told them yes and that she had taken
it straight to lost property and handed it in.
Tonight, two uniformed officers came to her house and asked her to accompany her to the police station for questioning related to theft by finding.
She had to leave her 14yr old daughter in the house at 8.30pm (her daughter panics and her mother can't leave her for long) and accompany the
officers down to the station.
She had to take her shoes off, and the cord that went inside her jogging pants, her watch and all the other personal items on her. She was then
photographed, fingerprinted, DNA sample taken and drugs tested before being interviewed on tape under caution.
My friend explained again that all she had done was hand in a lost wallet. They said that they had seen her on CCTV pick the wallet up and take it to
lost property, they could see she had'nt opened the wallet however the CCTV stopped in the que of the lost property. When the owner eventualy claimed
the wallet, there was appparently £35 missing.
The police showed my friend the lost propety carbon copy slip and the time was 3 hrs after she handed it in. She was not given a copy of the stub or
anything to say she had handed it in.
Then, the police said they knew who had taken the money and it was a male member of staff at the coach station. My friend had handed the wallet to a
female who took it out the back, at some point a male member of staff had written the property stub with the time 3 hrs later. So the police knew it
was'nt my friend as they already had a guy under suspicion.
They asked her if she knew how they managed to trace her. My friend said no. They said they traced her via all the CCTV up to where she booked her
tickets, and found her telephone number from the booking form. It did'nt have her address though.
The police then said, "Do you remember that phonecall from the coach company offering you free tickets?" "That was us finding out if we'd got
the right person and your address".
So not only have they dragged my friend down the station for just being a good citizen, they took every bit of info she has and even pretended to be
the coach company in order to obtain her address. All when they already had a suspect!
My friend does not have a lot of money and the last trip she took was the first in years. She was actualy really looking forward to using the
free vouchers on another trip somewhere.
They told her that they would destroy all the fingerprints and DNA samples and that she was free to go. Not an apology or anything.
Personaly i think this is disgusting!
As an ex copper myself i never thought i'd see the day when i'd lose all respect completely for our
police! Today i have come very, very, close!
CX.