Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Odd Crimes

One of the newest features that the local newspaper has been printing is a daily log of all the police activity occuring within the city. I was surprised to see so much police activity occur in just one day, as well as reading the kinds of things that the local police force gets called on. In a city with a population of 20,000 located in the Upper Peninsula, it's not the typical kinds of criminal activity you would find in a bigger city. Yes, some of those "typical" crimes do exist from time to time, but usually they are few and far between. Here are some of the more interesting crimes listed in the police log and some that'll make you chuckle.

"Request for a Skunk Trap" - Hmm, okay. I didn't think police departments had any kind of live traps on hand. Isn't this something for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to handle? Then again, maybe this individual didn't know who to call for. Skunks are nasty critters (I've come across a few in my time) and once you see more than one start hanging out together, you know it's time to take action. In fact, my grandmother at her farm has three or four "pet" skunks! I don't know if I'd be so trusting as to call them pets.

"Dead squirrel for removal" - Okay, this one made me chuckle. So there's a dead squirrel lying on the street and instead of this individual handling it themselves, they call the police to get rid of it? Now I've heard of everything. Then again, where do you put a dead squirrel carcass in a city? I don't know that I'd call the police for that. Why not dig a hole in the ground and bury the thing. Either that, or put it in the freezer and have squirrel meat for later. :-D

"Car lock-out assistance" - The last few days I've been reading the city police log, I've come across quite a few of these. At least I know I'm not the only one that this has happened to. I used to own a car in which I either locked the keys in the car or forgot to shut the headlights off and drained the battery. I'm so glad I have a newer car with better technology. But it just goes to show you that locking your keys in a car does happen on occasion, especially when you're distracted.

"Person sleeping on steps" - Another one that made me chuckle. Obviously the person sleeping on the steps was passed out from drinking too much (isn't that safe to say?). I can't imagine if I were the person calling the police to report that someone was sleeping on my front steps. How foolish and unbelievable would that sound? But you want the person off your steps - I mean, why else would he/she be there? Personally, I think I'd try waking them up myself and telling them to shoo.

The rest of the incidents are pretty typical activities for this city, including reported drunkenness, thefts, civil disturbances, and driving complaints. In a city that seems fairly quiet and nice, where you can go about your business without feeling like someone's chasing you (I won't say that you can leave your doors unlocked, because that's gone out the window a long time ago), there's much more activity that involves the police than I would've thought. Most of it is minor, yet it goes to show you that the police aren't sitting around in their station twittling their thumbs. There is LOTS that goes on, even in a U.P. city.

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