Tell me about police procedure for home robberies

[ninja9578]

I'm working on a new book and in the book, the main character calls the cops because their house had been ransacked. I think there is one or two cops floating around DV, but anyone who knows can help me out. After the cops check the house to make sure no one is still there, what happens in the next hour? Are there a standard set of questions, some type of procedure? They are small town cops, less than a dozen in the whole town, and the house owner is a young heiress and her boyfriend.

[Sleepy420]

Cops check the house for any evidence, then asks the owners if they had got into any altercations recently that could have lead to this, who are your enemies, etc. Then the cops go back to the precient, checks old files for people around the area that have committed burglary, cross reference that shiet.(some burglars always look for shiet in the same places).... investigate,investigate, investigate.

[Original Poster]

Yeah for me the detective took a really quick, lazy look around then asked me if I knew who might have done it then handed me a number and told me to come in and give a statement.

[ninja9578]

Yeah for me the detective took a really quick, lazy look around then asked me if I knew who might have done it then handed me a number and told me to come in and give a statement. You were robbed once? Do you happen to live in a small town or a suburb, because I'm interested in what all cops do, but mostly small town cops. And in response to your sig; Led Zeppelin simply walks into Mordor: Led Zeppelin - Ramble On (Studio Version - Best Quality) - YouTube

[tommo]

Laziest robber ever.

[LucidFlanders]

I've had my house broken in twice, they just did what Omnis said both times. I live in a medium sized city. They don't dust for prince, last time we got robbed i told him i never touched anything and he said they don't do that CSI stuff. They pretty much write down your statement, and ask questions. The cop did say most house robberies are from druggies looking for fast cash, or things to sell for fast cash. They don't dust for prince because they most likely wont find any of the robber with all that other prince all over your house. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but change needle to finger prince, and haystack to too many finger prince at every inch of what they touched.

[tommo]

PRINTS, FFS!!!! Jesus christ.... Also, once my dad's surgery got broken in to and the cops did find a muddy shoe print, he stepped in the mud outside and left a print inside, the cops already assumed it was some guy that had robbed a lot of places previously or something. But they knew who it was based on that and convicted him once they found all the stuff at his house. So it really depends on the case I think, sometimes they probably would bother looking for evidence, other times they would have no clue, and it probably would be a waste of money to do so.

[LucidFlanders]

Sorry, i forgot how to spell it so i spelt it that way. Normally i do a google search, but was lazy.

[LucidFlanders]

Also, once my dad's surgery got broken in to and the cops did find a muddy shoe print, he stepped in the mud outside and left a print inside, the cops already assumed it was some guy that had robbed a lot of places previously or something. But they knew who it was based on that and convicted him once they found all the stuff at his house. So it really depends on the case I think, sometimes they probably would bother looking for evidence, other times they would have no clue, and it probably would be a waste of money to do so. I guess it depends on the case as you said. The first one they smashed the glass and broke the door in, took a few things, tried to lift the TV (had lots of dust on it), but left it when it was too hard, then went out the other door and kept it wide open. I lived at a busy street there. The second time they used some lawn shears that was in the carport, pried the window open, walked in and laid some of our grocery bags down in different places, i guess they figured we were out at work. Someone spooked them because they left the bags laying on the floor in the basement, didn't take anything from upstairs but they took my backpack with my work vest/shirt/shoes in them....rofl! basement door was unlocked. They barely took anything, and the things they did take were worth nothing. Druggies for sure. No PRINTS! were taken, he said it was most likely druggies because how lame the robbery was, and recently drug addicts have moved into that area and causing trouble, native indians.

[Original Poster]

Cops told me I was basically fucked unless I had documentation proving all the missing stuff was mine. Ninja is answer to your question this happened in a large town/small city of 80,000 people