Do it yourself in Wild West fashion
An interesting story about how the Finnish police failed to take an interest in a crime, the individual took matters into their own hands and got results. A laptop was stolen from an automobile which was then sold on huuto.net (Finnish ebay), the owner won the huuto.net auction and confronted the thief…
The Apple PowerBook computer that had been on floor between the front and back seat was no longer there. Päivärinta marched to the police station and reported the theft. The result was fairly predictable: “I was told that finding the laptop again was pretty unlikely. The police officer basically just shrugged”, recalls Päivärinta of the meeting three weeks ago. After the police comments, he was more or less resigned to the fact that the laptop was a goner and he would never see it or its equally valuable contents again.
[...]The seller wrote that he had acquired the “nearly-new” laptop as a legacy. All of the details of the machine fitted with the one liberated from Päivärinta’s car, including all the comments made by the seller to enquiries from potential buyers. Päivärinta called the police about the suspicious online sale. “I got a reply from the police that could I get back to them a bit later. It was frustrating, because I needed the machine and its contents back, and there it was, kind of on a plate.”
Päivärinta acknowledges that a great deal of police time and energy goes into crimes that are more serious than the property theft of a laptop computer. By the same token, he did feel nevertheless that the police were rather indifferent about pursuing the case. “It occasionally felt as though the only way to get anything done was to do it yourself in Wild West fashion”, he commented.
Yay, nerds strike back!
Comment by Jani Kuusisto — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
It pisses me off when the police are unable to do something because of lack of resources/money. It’s far more justified to tax people to fund the police than to fund some welfare program.
Comment by Mikko Sandt — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:12 pm
I’m not surprised. The cop probably didn’t even know what an Apple PowerBook is…
This country is sooo into Micro$oft… there’s hardly any support for Macs… just loads and loads and loads of stuff for Windoze…
…but on the other hand: we can manage quite well without any.
I one needs a course in order to use a computer/program, the planning has failed, IMO.
Comment by FinnFreak — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
oops..! There’s an ‘f’ missing in that last sentence of mine:
“If one needs…”
Comment by FinnFreak — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:28 pm
I wonder how many day fines the unemployed thief got when caught? lol!
Comment by Phil — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:39 pm
Some years back, I came home to my Helsinki flat late at night, and heard breaking sounds in my basement closet area. Obviously, someone was in the basement breaking into the individual storage cabinets. I called the police, and was told that they were too busy to come. They then suggested - in their absence - that I should go down into the basement and investigate on my own, and report back to them. I told them I would do so only if they came and lent me one of their sidearms or at least one of their police dogs. I had no intention of going into a dark basement alone to confront one or more criminals. I insisted that the police come, and they refused. The police dispatcher then hung up on me. I called again, and he threatened to send some officers over to arrest me if I kept on insisting. Finally, after I shouted at the police dispatcher that it would be a great article for a tabloid (police arrests man reporting crime while criminal is left alone), they sent over several police men and dogs into my basement. They caught a guy who had the master keys for several apartment houses and was obviously a one man crime wave. No one from the police department ever called to thank me. Probably, they were too angry at my persistence. With that being said, police in Helsinki are usually polite, and I never had any problems with them other than this one case. But they were not there initially when needed.
Comment by Peter — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:47 pm
…perhaps they were all at Hervanta..?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/donitsit.jpg
Comment by FinnFreak — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 3:58 pm
I wonder how many day fines the unemployed thief got when caught?
I was more amazed that the nerds didn’t get arrested and fined.
Comment by Hank W. — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 4:46 pm
Now here’s one more reason to stop war on drugs and put all those police officers trying to catch drug trafficers into catching people who do violence, or thieving. It is a sick country, where it is more important to catch person selling drugs than people mugging, or robbing people.
Comment by Mikko S�rel� — Wed, Apr 26th, 2006 @ 6:00 pm
Here’s where all the detective work took place. Somebody posted a message that he’s friend’s PowerBook got stolen.
Comment by Johannes — Thu, Apr 27th, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
The police would work so much better if we didn’t have this old soviet style system where tax payer money funds them. I don’t want to wait in line for service when I got a burglar in my house. Why should my tax money make it so that some jobbless can get protection before me? No privatize the police and let market forces handle this.
Whoa… I think I was chanelling finnpundit or winter there for a while…
Comment by Captain Haddock — Thu, Apr 27th, 2006 @ 2:47 pm
These are rather fascinating stories of police neglect in Finland.
Should the police neglect to do their duty in the US, and then a crime does occur, the local government responsible would be sued for millions, and legislatures would use that ammunition against the incumbent administration in budget talks, and in the next elections.
Of course, such recourse is impossible in Finland, where individuals are basically powerless against the state’s crimes of neglect.
In those cases that do wind up being publicized (instead of swept under the rug), the punitive damages are so small that there is very little incentive for reform.
Comment by Finnpundit — Fri, Apr 28th, 2006 @ 12:41 am
Comment by Miriam — Mon, May 1st, 2006 @ 1:16 am
Speaking of the Wild West, I am hoping to get a single action .45 sometime in the future, nickelplated and engraved.
Comment by Captain Haddock — Mon, May 1st, 2006 @ 2:10 am