How to get items back from the Police, that they "lost"

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Muncher said:

I’m only relaying what I was told.

Interested to hear what force re your cheque

[paintman]

Red 4 said:

Hmm. So 8 officers from 4 different forces have told you that property routinely disappears from stores. I'm still calling BS on that. When you first join the job you are told that there are 2 things beginning with P that may land you in the st, so take care with both of them.

1. Property.
2. Police women.

Most people listen to that advice. I suspect you've been watching too much Line of Duty (or something).

Changed a bit then.
I joined towards the end of the 70s.
It was the 3 Ps
1. Prisoners
2. Prick
3. Property.
Not necessarily in that order.

[TVR1]

Has OP switched on find my iPhone/pad yet?

[Muncher]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Interested to hear what force re your cheque

Suffolk Police

[KingofKong]

My dad had an ex-policeman working for him, really nice fella and was quite open about how he left the force.

The long story short, items that were in stock over X number of days/months unclaimed would end up going to auction.

It was common, according to him, for certain items to go missing rather than go to auction. The ex-officer took or was given a bike from the stores and he said he was set up by one of his seniors who didn’t like him. He was ultimately dismissed and as above quite open about what happened, he said it was a commonly known ‘perk’ of the job right up until he took something, prior to this ‘they’ were all at it, including senior staff.

I suspect he was caught in some kind of internal investigation, it happens in all walks of life, if there’s an opportunity somebody will take advantage somewhere.

[0ddball]

Red 4 said:

Muncher said:

I’m only relaying what I was told.

Yet all the officers/ former officers on here state that property going missing does not happen routinely. Don't you find that odd ?

Most of the known theives they come across in the line of duty probably say that too.

[bunchofkeys]

Thank you for the replies.

I've asked the ex what paperwork was used to collect 2 out of the 3 items, and if the iPad was recorded.
If she still is in possession of this document, then at least make an internal complaint though the police station site.
And if she doesn't have any update, then a letter indicating small claims court action for the cost of the iPad.

In addition to that, i've also told her to switched on the find my phone feature. I'm not an Apple user, so no idea how to do this.
But both her and my son love the Apple ecosystem, so i'm sure they know how to do this.

Will have to wait to see what happens next.

Edited by bunchofkeys on Sunday 21st February 09:08

[Pegscratch]

La Liga said:

f course the value is relevant as it forms part of the risk / reward for most thefts.

I don’t see the relevance of slack automotive industry processes.

You attribute too much intelligence to these people.

We had a guy stealing processors out of entry level business PCs. On a good day £15 each worth, and he got through maybe ten or twenty of them in total. A stupidly small amount of money to be strung up over when you’re in a £19k PA job.

[Gareth79]

I'd have thought being caught stealing and selling evicence from criminal cases would land somebody in prison for a not insignificant amount of time?

[anonymous-user]

Red 4 said:

You say that but I knew an officer who allegedly set up an eBay account and allegedly flogged stuff seized in searches.

Of course, but it's a very improbable event and would certainly be well down the order of what I'd speculate happened with missing / misplaced property.

[AngryPartsBloke]

TVR1 said:

I reckon, given a couple of weeks, I could get a job at your place, (I tried to email but you don't accept PM) if I knew where.

Not as frontline staff. Just a cleaner etc.

I reckon within 6 weeks I could clear your holding room out.

I’m good like that.

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

[Bigends]

AngryPartsBloke said:

TVR1 said:

I reckon, given a couple of weeks, I could get a job at your place, (I tried to email but you don't accept PM) if I knew where.

Not as frontline staff. Just a cleaner etc.

I reckon within 6 weeks I could clear your holding room out.

I’m good like that.

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

Hmm, any nick I worked at you wouldnt get past the front desk. We'd either get the recipient of the parcel down to collect, ot take it over the desk on signature. Anyone coming into the station was signed in, issued with a pass and escorted to wherever they needed to go. Proffesional standards would often carry out 'mystery shopper' exercises in order to check security, producing dud i.d. to try and gain entry or try and tailgate others into Police buildings

[otolith]

Bigends said:

AngryPartsBloke said:

TVR1 said:

I reckon, given a couple of weeks, I could get a job at your place, (I tried to email but you don't accept PM) if I knew where.

Not as frontline staff. Just a cleaner etc.

I reckon within 6 weeks I could clear your holding room out.

I’m good like that.

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

Hmm, any nick I worked at you wouldnt get past the front desk. We'd either get the recipient of the parcel down to collect, ot take it over the desk on signature. Anyone coming into the station was signed in, issued with a pass and escorted to wherever they needed to go. Proffesional standards would often carry out 'mystery shopper' exercises in order to check security, producing dud i.d. to try and gain entry or try and tailgate others into Police buildings

This, I guess?

https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/seminars/2230.html

[Amateurish]

bunchofkeys said:

Thank you for the replies.

I've asked the ex what paperwork was used to collect 2 out of the 3 items, and if the iPad was recorded.
If she still is in possession of this document, then at least make an internal complaint though the police station site.
And if she doesn't have any update, then a letter indicating small claims court action for the cost of the iPad.

In addition to that, i've also told her to switched on the find my phone feature. I'm not an Apple user, so no idea how to do this.
But both her and my son love the Apple ecosystem, so i'm sure they know how to do this.

Will have to wait to see what happens next.

Edited by bunchofkeys on Sunday 21st February 09:08

I doubt you'll get anywhere with this if everything was done via your ex. Can't you just leave it for her to sort?

[vaud]

AngryPartsBloke said:

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

I heard a story about a CEO who commissioned a pen-tester and told them his security was the best in the world.
Next day the CEO arrived and found the tester sat at his desk.

It may just be a story but I know pen-testers can be really good.

[HiAsAKite]

vaud said:

AngryPartsBloke said:

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

I heard a story about a CEO who commissioned a pen-tester and told them his security was the best in the world.
Next day the CEO arrived and found the tester sat at his desk.

It may just be a story but I know pen-testers can be really good.

The company I work for did exactly this for a customer - very visual way of demonstrating what an attacker could do, if they really wanted to/tried.
It had the desired (positive) effect.

[Red 4]

La Liga said:

Red 4 said:

You say that but I knew an officer who allegedly set up an eBay account and allegedly flogged stuff seized in searches.

Of course, but it's a very improbable event and would certainly be well down the order of what I'd speculate happened with missing / misplaced property.

Story here;

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-new...

6 got binned in the end. It was 10 years ago though and I haven't heard of anything similar since !

[Dibble]

Some cops are useless. It’s a personal bugbear of mine people driving in or out of secure sites and once they’re through the gate, carrying on, rather than waiting for the gate to shut and make sure no one has followed them in or out.

Many years ago, apart from a key, the only way in or out of custody was to stand by the gate, shout “gate” and wait for one of the custody staff to buzz you in or out (the gates also had a remote electric lock release, behind the desk). One enterprising “visitor”, left briefly unsupervised, picked up a broom, swept his way to the gate, shouted “gate”, got buzzed out and was away on his toes... I can’t fault his initiative if I’m honest! Fortunately, he was only in for a relatively minor matter, although it ruined his chances of future bail as he was also later charged with (and convicted of) escaping from lawful custody. To be fair to him, he was pleasant enough and no bother to deal with (he was a serial visitor).

As for property, there are flaws in the system, the main one being the amount of it. We had an email a week or so back asking us to check if we had anything stored that could be returned or disposed of. There’s something like 55,000 items in just one of our half dozen “local” stores, with more held at HQ and yet more in long term/archive storage. As cases are held up going through court, there is more property being retained, for longer. I don’t have access to the property store (I can get into the overnight area, which is on CCTV), but only property staff (all non warranted) can get behind the counter or into the actual storage area.

Stuff does go missing/gets misplaced, which is the usual reason it disappears. That said, I do know of officers who have stolen property and been sacked (rightly, IMO). However, it’s much more likely that stuff gets genuinely misplaced/returned to the wrong person with a load of other stuff/misfiled, rather than it being stolen. I personally wouldn’t steal an iPad and risk arrest, conviction, loss of job (and all the consequent hassles) and make myself unemployable pretty much anywhere. There will always be a very small number of cops who do, but they really are in the minority.

[TVR1]

Bigends said:

AngryPartsBloke said:

TVR1 said:

I reckon, given a couple of weeks, I could get a job at your place, (I tried to email but you don't accept PM) if I knew where.

Not as frontline staff. Just a cleaner etc.

I reckon within 6 weeks I could clear your holding room out.

I’m good like that.

I went to the Cybersecurity expo in London a few years back and watched a talk called 'How to hack a police station' by a pen testing company. It's amazing where you can get with a Police lanyard and an amazon box to hide where the badge should be.

Hmm, any nick I worked at you wouldnt get past the front desk. We'd either get the recipient of the parcel down to collect, ot take it over the desk on signature. Anyone coming into the station was signed in, issued with a pass and escorted to wherever they needed to go. Proffesional standards would often carry out 'mystery shopper' exercises in order to check security, producing dud i.d. to try and gain entry or try and tailgate others into Police buildings

To be fair, Bigends, I did qualify later, I was being slightly tongue in cheek.

However, it’s the unfailing certainty that it’s impossible, that often lets people down. Could be chance, could be planning.

I’ll give you an amusing story. Not that many years ago, I took a temp job with a well know food delivery company (I was moving back overseas and had 2 months down over the Winter. On my route, I had one Ms Bercow, around 8pm. Yep, that one. I was waved through the main gate with no question with the vague directions of the doors are over there. Around I went, I found myself in the inner courtyard. Hopped out with the bags and went for a walk. A vote of some sort had just finished so a few people about who I cheerily asked, ‘could you tell me where the speakers House is?’ Over there, no questions. 10 minutes later, rang the bell and down she popped. I spent quite a nice 20 minutes having a chat in the kitchen. In case you think ‘bullst’ the glass lift is a bit ‘sudden’ in crushed velvet decor but an amusing ride up a couple of floors to the apartment. if you’ve not been in it, you wouldn’t know about it.

On exiting, couldn’t find my way out, only then was I questioned properly by an officer asking WTF are you doing/you shouldn’t be here/how did you get in?

I did that delivery a few times and usually just waved through. The only time I had an issue was a sniffer dog search. I refused on the grounds that I can’t have dogs sniffing around fresh food, in the back of the van and if it’s a problem, please call Ms B. Probably too much hassle, if Ms Speaker isn’t going to get her shopping.

Waved through.

Security and vigilance are only as strong as the least secure and vigilant member of the team.

I probably fit the profile of being ‘least likely’ to have a Anfo mix in the back but I wasn’t really challenged at all.

Edited by TVR1 on Monday 22 February 19:46

[Pothole]

KingofKong said:

My dad had an ex-policeman working for him, really nice fella and was quite open about how he left the force.

The long story short, items that were in stock over X number of days/months unclaimed would end up going to auction.

It was common, according to him, for certain items to go missing rather than go to auction. The ex-officer took or was given a bike from the stores and he said he was set up by one of his seniors who didn’t like him. He was ultimately dismissed and as above quite open about what happened, he said it was a commonly known ‘perk’ of the job right up until he took something, prior to this ‘they’ were all at it, including senior staff.

I suspect he was caught in some kind of internal investigation, it happens in all walks of life, if there’s an opportunity somebody will take advantage somewhere.

How long ago was this?