A Cautionary Tale – 2

Today I have another helpful leaflet to read through. It’s called “How to make a complaint against the Police”, and it comes from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). It’s not at all threatening, and there is even a form available on their website to help the complaints process along. But I do wonder why on earth I should have to do this: after all, had Merseyside Police managed to bother themselves to actually investigate the theft of my best camera, there would be no need for further action.

Moreover, the lack of investigation hasn’t fussed my insurance brokers, who have confirmed that a mere incident log number will satisfy the insurers’ demand for details. The impression is given that it’s not worth bothering, which brings the obvious corollary: at what point does crime become “worth bothering about”? It’s a strange concept that thieving a 275 quid camera is, well, “no big deal”, and also a disturbing one. It suggests that the criminally inclined can get a taste for robbery without action being taken against them.

Now, I’m not in the category of folks wanting to reintroduce capital punishment for “striking Westminster Bridge”, but it does seem odd that some people may become set in the way of criminality before any corrective action is even considered. It’s always more difficult to kick a habit that you’ve already started.

Meanwhile, the box from Amazon that I kept meaning to throw out has proved to be unusually valuable: it has in it the Invoice and Receipt for the now missing camera. After all, despite the theft not bothering the Police, the insurers aren’t about to stump up unless I can demonstrate that the article in question was mine.

[Update: the Travel Insurance – guess what – does not cover anything that has been checked in. Where does it say that? It’s in the list of ingredients, after Monosodium Glutamate (apologies to M. Python)]