New York police say sorry with cheesecake to pensioners

New York police say sorry with cheesecake to pensioners

news.bbc.co.uk

New York's police chief has delivered a cheesecake to an elderly couple in Brooklyn, to apologise for dozens of mistaken police visits to their home.

A computer glitch had led officers to Walter and Rose Martin's home 50 times in the past eight years, police said.

The latest intrusion came on Tuesday, with officers pounding on the front and back doors, shouting "Police, open up!"

Thursday's visit - cheesecake in hand - went well. The Martins, aged 82 and 83, shared pictures of their grandchildren.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Looked but did not see this posted yet.

Gotta love it when the police, villified as they are a lot, actually admit to wrongdoing and do what they can to rectify it. And the commissioner coming out to boot. Bet those octegenarians were suprised.

Kinda renews my faith in humanity just a little bit. Not much, but a tiny bit.

Figured this would be nice beside all the bad news stories we all read.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 3/20/2010 by Finn1916]

8 years of harrasment and they bring them a cheesecake?...what if they were lactose intolerant?

Originally posted by neechi
8 years of harrasment and they bring them a cheesecake?...what if they were lactose intolerant?

HA HA! Yes, the cheesecake does seem a little small of a sorry gift, but the fact that they said sorry at all is amazing to me.

The article says that the police visited their home dozens of times mistakenly. Shouldn't they have figured things out after the first half a dozen times maybe? Can't understand why it took dozens of times before they realized the calls were fictitious...

Good find OP..

Thanks OP for sharing this. I will admit I have a cynical attitude when it comes to law enforcement officers but this was a nice gesture despit the intervening years. To admit a mistake and make a nice gesture is a show of humility and understanding that isn't seen much these days (at least in my experience, others may have had the opposite).

Kudos to those officers.

Cheers

I hate to sound cynical but only if the police had brought a check for half a million pounds would it be OK for 50, I repeat 50 mistakes.

The fact that they even admit it stuns me, but the fact that they brought cheesecake made me think that one of the policeman probably strong armed the cheese cake from some poor bakery on the policeman's beat or route. The point I want to make is that they probably didn't even pay for it.

This media coverage may look like some type of an apology to the public but to me it looks more like a scene from the Three Stooges. Yuk Yuk Yuk. We're so stupid, 50 time and by the way here is some stolen cheese cake. Have you got any tea or something to drink for that cheese cake love? Yuk Yuk Yuk.

Thanks for the posting.

New Yorks finest?

Wow, fifty times, and they still didn't get it right.

You'd think that after the first ten visits to the house, that at least one of the "officers" would have made a note and logged details at HQ to let the despatchers know that the house is inhabited by an elderly couple!

Do the police in New York have any brains at all? I can imagine that some do, but after fifty visits, I do wonder.

How very sad.

As one previous poster has already suggested, it is somewhat nice that they have admitted wrongoing, and made a gesture of goodwill, but the cheescake is probably being paid for by the taxpayer.

Just another example of the taxpayers being made to cough up for the wrongdoing and incopetence of others... Sad. Just sad.