Crime in the Hood vs. Lack of Police : Live, while it happens

I'm still in shock over this so I'll try to be objective.

To make a long story short, a kid from the neighborhood stole a check from me, then wrote it out to himself for $3500. He went to the local check casher where he had to give a copy of his license, with his social security number and date of birth and have a photo taken. Not the brightest of kids.

A woman who works there alerts someone in my company and I come by to get the information from her then check my bank account online and get a copy of the check and see that sure enough, that check had been stolen from my checkbook.

Armed with a name, address, phone number, and ID I called 911. They took my name and number, took the information, and said someone would call back within an hour. I told them I needed to speak to a detective or officer. I said "will it really be an hour, or should I go to the station." She said not to goto the station. A bit over 2 hours later, a clerk called back and I again explained what was going on.

Except by now, I had already called some of my contacts in the south end, especially through the South End Youth Baseball. We were able to track the kid down, and get a partial confession from him (he insists he did it on his own, although his story is internally inconsistent). I had found out he already has a police record, and is a senior at East Boston High School.

So, now the clerk calls me and I explain the story and she says I needed to talk to an officer or detective. (Exactly what I told them 2.5 hours earlier!) I finally get through to a detective after 3 wrong diversions, who says he is really busy, they've got something going on tonight and that he is off over the weekend, so we set up a time to talk on Monday. I hope to see some sort of Big Bust in the papers tomorrow.

Nice to know that when $3500 bucks gets stolen from you and you do all the detective work and track the guy down, get a confession, and can have him meet you somewhere to have him arrested that the Boston Police Department can get on it within 4 days. I wonder who you have to be to get more immediate service?

As I've been writing this, I looked at the evidence further and realized there is a third person involved in this as well.

Another disturbing aspect of this story is that when I was speaking to the clerk who called me back after the 911 call, I asked her why the call took so long. I had promised a call within an hour and it took over two hours. She told me, "oh, well we just tell everyone that they will get a call back within an hour. We just return calls when we can, usually it is within an hour but often it takes longer. That one hour thing is just something we tell the public"

So, if anyone would like to see someone get arrested (and hopefully some money recoverd) I'm trying to set it up for Monday afternoon, maybe around 5:00 pm. Although he called me tonight and already changed his story to saying he only had $500 of the money left. Two hours ago he said he had $1000. His mother and aunt have already left messages for me.

Not really sure what to do. But, so far there is no remorse in him, it sounds like he just wants to get out of going to jail. He is a kid that grew up in the south end baseball league, and we hate to see one of "our" kids go bad. Still, he is perfectly young enough to straighten. What is most distressing is that he won't snitch on his friends, maybe we can try and use this as a test case of showing leniency for being honest.

I'm tired and rambling, and not really feeling in the xmas spirit. But, I hope you enjoy yours.
peace,
kevin