Career Change
Commentary by Carlleen Cairns
ST. MARY'S TODAY
If you have ever considered a life of crime as opposed to being a law-abiding citizen might I suggest you consider The Sunshine State or more commonly known as The Great State of Florida. I am not sure where Florida recruits or trains their law enforcement members, but as a casual observer, I think they need to find new methods, to be precise more modern day methods.
My oldest daughter recently had her purse stolen while meeting her dad to drop-off her son, the purse was stolen from her vehicle while she and her dad transferred the little one’s things from one vehicle to another. After taking the purse, the thief waltzed right into the store and used her credit card, almost right in front of them. At first, I thought this was a little gutsy on the thief’s part, but after the police response guts had nothing to do with the act, they were simply acquainted with law enforcement procedures, or lack there of.
Once a sheriff’s deputy arrived on scene to take a statement, my daughter told him the store clerk had already informed her that the store was equipped with state of the art surveillance, in fact the surveillance cameras were so good, they could even read the numbers off your credit card with you standing at the counter. When my daughter asked the deputy to pull the surveillance tape, he refused saying, “We don’t pull surveillance tapes for simple purse snatchings.”
To make matters worse, my daughter had her bank on the phone, they could identify everywhere the card had been used, a pattern was definitely immerging. Even thought the bank immediately placed a stop on the card, her accounts were cleaned out. The deputy totally ignored this information also.
Now twenty-five years ago, even ten years ago, the deputy would have been correct, more than likely it would have been considered a simple purse snatching, however this is 2006, yet the words identify theft never entered into the investigation. My daughter explained to the deputy all of her identification was located in her purse, much of it by state law she is required to carry with her at all times because of her job. However, nothing she said or did would change his opinion on the viewing the tapes. Nor did he even enter the store to speak with the clerk.
Now I am simply a high school graduate, I do not posses an alphabet behind my name, I have no specialized training, and I am just an average Jane on the street, yet even I understand identify theft. Apparently law enforcement in the state of Florida do not, I would not dare to mention human trafficking or illegal aliens those terms could blow their badges, or at the very least cause them to drop jelly from a donut onto their uniform.
Florida ranks among the top six states for identity theft, the other five rounding out the top states, are California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. The top states for identity theft are also the states with the highest rate of human trafficking and illegal aliens. It does not take a Doctorate in Criminology to connect the dots. The county in Central Florida where the purse was stolen has enjoyed the highest rate of purse snatchings in the area. The local police see no problem with this.
Within two days of the purse being stolen, a man phoned my daughter, claiming to have her purse; she met with him that day. Everything was still in her purse except the cash. He gave her a sob story of being out work and he just happened to find her purse in a local dumpster.
My husband thinks the man was an innocent dumpster diver just looking for a reward. I think the man had something to do with the snatching. At this point, we do not know who is correct, since the purse was returned the police consider the case closed.
The day after the purse was returned, the bank called to inform my daughter that checks written on her account were surfacing in South Florida; the checks were not hers or her husband’s checks. However, the checks did have my son-in-law’s name and their old address in California. One check would be considered a third party check, in the amount of almost three hundred dollars, cashed by a local drug store.
I do not know about anyone else, but have you tried to get a third party check cashed for such a large amount? It looks rather suspicious since money laundering in South Florida, due to the large influx of drugs, has become a local past time. When the police in Central Florida were contacted their response was, “it is not our jurisdiction.”
Here in Florida each county is like a mini state, the sheriff’s departments work independently of each other and they are the top law enforcement agency. Florida’s equivalent of the state police are know as the Florida Highway Patrol and they are true to the name, they only work the highways. Therefore, when the sheriff’s department blows it, you have no backup or recourse.
Much of the mess could have been avoided right up front if the officer had just done his job. With the way this has been handled it is not wonder illegal aliens, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and those who train to hijack planes come to Florida. I will not even mention how many pedophiles make their home in Florida.
If you should become a victim in Florida, my only advice to you is suck it up and move on, you will find no help from the police. If you are considering a career change, Florida is your state; you will even find it easy to assume a new identity, so as not to ruin your own good name.