The Police Paradox

There was a robbery. The person whose house was robbed lives in the third floor of an apartment house in a place not too far from Hitech city. He was away for one night and there was a break in. Door forced open, steel almirah broken open and stuff stolen. Jewellery, cash, etc. Alright. Happens. But what is intriguing is what the police does. This is what happened.

The Sub Inspector came with his writer. He first admonished the watchman of the building and gave him some tips on how to stay awake past 1. 'Sleep till 1, and then wake up,' was his advice. The watchman was then dispensed off. To the aggrieved party the SI was very sympathetic. 'What's lost is lost,' said the philosopher cop. 'There is no point in filing a case. Lawyer will cost 5000 bucks and there could be court visits and all that. So better not file a case unless you think there is substantial damage.'

The aggrieved party was further aggrieved at this helpless police. 'Fingerprints?' asked the party hopefully. 'They could be there.' One look at the place, the almirah and the cop decided. 'No,' he said. 'No point. First check if there is anything the thieves have left behind.' The aggrieved party searched gingery, not wanting their finger prints on the scene of crime. 'Not to worry,' said cop. 'There are no fingerprints of the thieves.' He must have had really good eyesight.

To their gentle insinuations that maybe some investigation could bring some results, the cop answered. 'You should be careful when you go out of town,' he warned. 'We have put up a notice in our police station about what to do when you go out of town.' The aggrieved party now started to wonder if they had done something wrong by not visiting the police station every day like one does a temple to check out the latest notices. But the police seem to advise what the priests do in their temples, don't get attached to valuables, to material things.

I can imagine what will happen today. A visit to the police station again with a detailed inventory, wait for the big boss to come, listen to him talk on his cell phone for a long time, experience the same discomfort everyone feels when he looks at you like you are wasting precious time, listen to a lecture on how not to be careless and leave anything of value of home, go to writer saab and write out a full report and head home and have a bath. As for the stolen articles, anyone's guess is as good as mine. We can most certainly kiss them good bye. The time it appears is ripe for an outsourced police outfit like a Perry Mason kind of an agency here - someone who could recover stuff for sure and take a part of it as reward! It would be simpler to have these agencies deal with the cops and the robbers!