Good Deeds?

The bro-in-law dropped by on Wednesday just prior to departing town for work. He mentioned a vehicle parked down the street between his place and our house. Something didn't sit right with this vehicle so he asked if I'd take a look at it when I was out on 'walk about'. No problem.

Just after dinner I was going to go out and check the mail and also check the Legion Hut to ensure all was well there which I check every couple days. My travels took me past this vehicle (a van) that James was enquiring about. The Legion Hut was fine so onto the vehicle.

The vehicle was parked nice and legal on the far right hand side of the road, but it was in a location that I've never seen vehicles park before. The vehicle also is not one that I recognized from town. On closer look, the driver's window was open and you could see where the rain had gotten in. I then walked around to the passenger side and I could see that the ignition was pulled off and there was a drill bit sitting on the seat. My hunch was that this was a stolen vehicle, so I copied down the licence plate and headed for home.

I fired up my trusted computer and headed over to CPIC Search to see if I could ascertain anything on the plate as to whether it was stolen or not. Sure enough I got a positive hit on the licence plate and was advised to contact the local Police.

I then called the local RCMP Detachment for Hanley however, I was transferred into Saskatoon as the local office was unmanned. I explained to the receptionist who answered my call that I suspected a vehicle was stolen and that I had queried the internet and received a positive reply. Her reply was that she didn't think a private citizen could query CPIC for licence plates. I assured her we could and I had however I suggested she 'run' her own query through her official CPIC system.

In a second or so she came back on the line and advised that the plate was actually stolen a day or so ago from the city of Saskatoon. The gal then asked that I wait and she'd check with the members to see if they would attend the vehicle or not. Within a few seconds she advised they would and then took down my name and phone number and thanked me for the call.

About 3 to 3 1/2 hours later a police car showed up in town and attended to the vehicle. This unit was actually a Vonda Detachment car (about an hour away from town) which explains the lengthy time arriving on the scene. Mind you there was no urgency to the call as there was no one in the vehicle and it wasn't going anywhere. That is what you get when the RCMP went to the hub Detachment setup. When the local Detachment members are not on duty then one of the other Detachments in the hub get to take the calls. The units can be a lengthy distance away from one call to the next so it can take some time for the members to arrive on scene. At least the member did attend, called a tow truck and the vehicle was hauled back into the city for return to the owner.

I was talking to a couple local people a day or so later about the vehicle and was surprised that many people had seen this vehicle sitting on the side of the street. Originally the vehicle had it's lights on (with no one around) and was running. The vehicle sat on the street with the lights on for many hours until presumably the vehicle ran out of gas and shut down and eventually the battery ran down so the lights would not show up.

I find this odd that people actually saw this for a length of time and took no action. Or possibly they did call the local Detachment and were transferred through to Saskatoon after 5 rings as happened to me. Then if the Saskatoon office was busy, they could have conceiveably received a message manager after 5 more rings or been transferred to the DOCC Saskatchewan number. If it was DOCC, then due to the workload, it could be 2-3 or even 5 more rings before they could answer. You have to remember these are not 911 calls, but still they are police calls. Maybe folks just gave up and hung up in frustration? If the persons that found it odd that this vehicle was sitting with it's lights on and didn't do anything, then that is troubling. Some people just don't want to get involved or unsure of what to do.

As well it must have been our local Detachment members days off or something as you would think the members would find it odd that a vehicle sat on the side of the street for any length of time with it's lights on and no one around. They most certainly would query the vehicle thru the CPIC system. But as the locals were not on duty, the town must have been switched over to one of the other hub Detachments. Either these hub members were too busy to attend to patrol through the town or had other duties to keep them occupied.

That sure doesn't give you the warm and snugglies . . .