Thing is when the police have clear footage of someone committing a crime they should be using that footage to make an appeal to the public for information. But they often have no interest whatsoever in finding the culprit. My girlfriend's parents have a jewelry store and a while ago someone came in and managed to slip a whole tray's worth of gold (worth $50,000+) into his jacket and walk out of the store. They had CRYSTAL CLEAR closeup footage of the guy because he was right under a camera and even looked up into the camera at one point, exposing his face with about as much clarity as you can possibly imagine. The police? "Well we rarely catch these guys....not much we can do" etc. Are you kidding me? How about going to the news media and asking them to show the guy's image in order to solve a serious robbery? And it happened again last week - another tray of jewelry stolen...clear camera footage of the perp....police with no interest whatsoever in finding him. 

eph221
I don't mean to be antagonistic to anyone in particular, but often the police get  complaining about inaction on the one hand and over stepping authority on the other hand.  And then ironically, the biggest selling shows on TV these days are cop shows.  What a strange world we live in.  Do victims get too much voice, or not enough?  I mean honestly?  Is our legal system bad or good?  Imperfect but..the best designed so far...or what.  Are lawyers all bad or all good or somewhere in between?   Who's the real authority on the matter anyways?  My overall observation is:  the american legal system is a major hassle with which to get involved  and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. :D

Come on. There is clearly no overstepping of authority involved in actively pursuing a robbery suspect from camera footage and nobody is ever going to make that charge of them. You're trying to conflate two unrelated issues. 

I can only shake my head and wonder. Perhaps they have no proof who stole Dave's gear, but for sure they could arrest somebody for fencing stolen property. That should be a slam-dunk and a felony. They have video, signatures and the stolen property has been positively identified. 
 
Perhaps Dave could start an online petition for the cops to do something. If they arrest the guy who sold the stolen goods, he'll rat out the the others to save himself, even more so if he has prior arrests. The bit about manpower and resource shortages if pure political BS. Show me where to sign.

  Take the time to remeber "that Becan"! It will refresh and replenish you! Good Luck Dave!

eph221
I don't mean to be antagonistic to anyone in particular, but often the police get  complaining about inaction on the one hand and over stepping authority on the other hand.  And then ironically, the biggest selling shows on TV these days are cop shows.  What a strange world we live in.  Do victims get too much voice, or not enough?  

Over stepping authority complaints are generally related to victim-less crimes we, the society, have invented as 'wrong', such as drug and vice crimes.  We don't like civil asset forfeiture and the abhorrent harassment and life destruction related to pursing these "crimes".  
 
Inaction complaints are about crimes like this one, non-violent but directly damaging to victims.  Police rate drug and vice crimes higher than theft. Theft is like lowest priority.  Police believe pursuing drug and vice crimes indirectly apprehends the same people doing violent crime, so they feel justified in dismissing most burglaries and theft.  
 
If Bitflipper was smoking a doobie on camera in Guitar Center, he would be in jail right now with a case brought against him with full cooperation from GC.  
 
So, let's not conflate the two.  Police over step and focus on victim-less "crimes" and dismiss very victim-full crimes like burglary.  
 
 

I used to think I lived in a pretty nice area. It's a small-ish city with a population of 100,000. Half of them work at Boeing, Microsoft or Amazon, so it's not an impoverished area.  I live in one of the nicer parts of town, where home ownership is high, lawns are well-maintained, and on the surface it looks like any well-established suburb.
 
But I've come to find out that property crime in my city is twice the national average. The chances of being a victim in Everett, Washington is 1 in 15. There are, on average, 50 (reported) burglaries per day here. State-wide, Washington has the highest rate of property crimes in the country. Surprisingly, this comes as a surprise to me.
 
And the cops don't have a very good track record. There's about a 16% chance of an arrest being made. Victims have a 0.3% chance of ever seeing their stolen items again. (Apparently, that includes those who've located their stuff on their own, without the help of the police.)
 
So the bottom line is: we're on our own in this dog-eat-dog culture.
 
Trying to formulate my next move...I didn't make it to the GC this weekend, but I'll try to stop by there today and have a talk with the store manager. He'd previously told me he couldn't discuss it except through the police intermediary, but now that the case is officially closed he shouldn't have any such prohibitions.
 
Unless, of course, it's GC corporate policy to sweep these matters under the rug. What I gather is that GC does not have a company-wide policy, and each store does only whatever local law requires them to do. Some have a 30-day "police hold", while others put used gear on the floor for immediate sale. Something to be aware of - imagine buying a used guitar from them, only to be informed later that it's not yours after all. 

For some unknown reason I always thought the the USA had a more robust law enforcment than the UK but it seems things are pretty much the same.
 
In the UK the police are just part of the issue, its the whole criminal justice system that is weighted in favour of the criminal. Add to that management by objectives (ie statistical targets) which distort priorites. Sometime the police may think they have a case but will the CPS will refuse to bring it to court.
 
As a result business often have to resort to civil recovery cases in an attempt to get justice and to attempt to deter theft.
 
 

Catching perps through investigation requires problem-solving skills. Those are not high on the requirement list for new police officers, many of whom now are ex-military (as am I), whose skills training was in other areas. In a typical police department of a smaller community (let's use Dave's 100,000 residents), you'd be lucky to have a few active, successful detectives who still give a crap, in spite of the overwhelming workload.
 
I was on a Chicago suburb city council back in the 80s. Small community wedged between four large ones. We didn't have a single detective that had the position on merit and not a department need to fill the position.
 
It is VERY difficult to keep good detectives in small communities. I know one here in Flagstaff (about 70,000 peeps, plus the students at NAU). He can't wait to get down to Phoenix where he can earn another $20K/year...and I can't blame him.
 
I feel really bad for Dave's loss. Physical things can be replaced, but creative work? That had to be really, really gut-wrenching. Makes ME sick thinking about it.
 
The one real lesson I learned from all of this?
 
REGULARLY MAINTAINED OFF-SITE BACKUPS.
 
Get a safe deposit box at your bank. They're cheap. Get a good backup utility, and use it. Determine how much work you can, or are willing to lose. Create an appropriate backup schedule (more often (up to daily) the more professional you are (from a pay-my-bills income perspective)) and rotate the backups through the safe deposit box.

Craig, that's my plan too.  I took a vow of poverty.

Nevermind.............. 

My dad was an attorney, and we always had acquaintances in law enforcement. My understanding from being familiar with court cases and LE activities was that they understood that there would always be a certain level of crime. As long as it wasn't violent, it was low priority. If crime goes above a certain level (different for different areas) then LE would focus on that area until the numbers went back down. Kind of like how you'll see traffic enforcement focus on a certain road for a few days, then you don't see them for months.
 
Law enforcement is more about managing crime, unfortunately, not eliminating it.
 
Regards,
Dan

I sent an email to the Lynnwood Guitar Center manager, asking for information. I suggested that even though he'd been instructed not to talk to me, since the case had been closed and the police were no longer interested it should be OK now. I asked him for the names of the people who sold my gear to GC, and what it would take to review the security video.
 
The manager did not reply to me directly. Instead, he forwarded my email to someone at Guitar Center corporate, identified in his signature as "Regional Investigator". He sent me the following reply:
 

I received a request for information that you sent to {name redacted} at Lynwood Guitar Center.  I appreciate your position and I’m sorry that somebody took your items.  Unfortunately, the information requested can only be released to a subpoena or to Law Enforcement.  Due to liabilities {my emphasis} we can’t release the personal information of the subjects of the investigation.  Also, any video evidence would also need to be requested through subpoena or released to Law Enforcement.  In addition, retention for video wouldn’t go back that far, if we had it at all.  I’m going to check with the store regarding the serial numbers requested, as I’m not familiar with this case .  I’m sure the police have the subject information and it would probably be easier to obtain it from them.  We don’t want to seem uncooperative and I hope you understand the reasons why (industry wide) that retailers can’t provide this information without proper legal requests.  I am more than happy to work with Everett police to identify and properly close this investigation.

 
So they are afraid the perpetrators might sue them for violating their privacy! 
 
 

Wow, all this indifference on the part of law enforcement and Guitar Center is disgusting. Isn't it a crime to buy/sell stolen goods? Why isn't Guitar Center worried about that? Maybe their corporate people need to be reminded about their complicity in this crime.

Maybe a civil lawsuit against GC would remind them that there are two sides involved.

bitflipper
I sent an email to the Lynnwood Guitar Center manager, asking for information. I suggested that even though he'd been instructed not to talk to me, since the case had been closed and the police were no longer interested it should be OK now. I asked him for the names of the people who sold my gear to GC, and what it would take to review the security video.
 
The manager did not reply to me directly. Instead, he forwarded my email to someone at Guitar Center corporate, identified in his signature as "Regional Investigator". He sent me the following reply:
 

I received a request for information that you sent to {name redacted} at Lynwood Guitar Center.  I appreciate your position and I’m sorry that somebody took your items.  Unfortunately, the information requested can only be released to a subpoena or to Law Enforcement.  Due to liabilities {my emphasis} we can’t release the personal information of the subjects of the investigation.  Also, any video evidence would also need to be requested through subpoena or released to Law Enforcement.  In addition, retention for video wouldn’t go back that far, if we had it at all.  I’m going to check with the store regarding the serial numbers requested, as I’m not familiar with this case .  I’m sure the police have the subject information and it would probably be easier to obtain it from them.  We don’t want to seem uncooperative and I hope you understand the reasons why (industry wide) that retailers can’t provide this information without proper legal requests.  I am more than happy to work with Everett police to identify and properly close this investigation.

 
So they are afraid the perpetrators might sue them for violating their privacy! 
 
 

WOW! I can't believe that email you got. Bitflipper, it sounds to me like the entire company knows it's buying stolen goods, much like pawn shops and that's how they handle it. Thing is. Did they return you your equipment they had knowing it was stolen? They obviously are making every attempt to avoid returning you your equipment which they know is stolen. If not then wouldn't that make them a party to the commission of a crime considering they are knowingly holding stolen goods? 
 
I am no lawyer that's for sure but I thought I would suggest that idea. This just really makes me upset and to hear about, I've had things stolen from me in a similar manor in the past and believe me when I say I feel your pain my friend.