[rjbwork]

> But they can take fingerprints

We've had a rash of car break-ins in my neighborhood. My roomate had a large metal ball hucked through his car window, and when the police called, the dude refused to bag it for evidence, take it with him, fingerprint it, or anything. I'd say to consider yourself lucky if your local beat police give a damn about collecting evidence of a crime that's not drugs, violence, or human trafficking.

EDIT: Just remembered, instead, he picked up the metal ball and started tossing it around, from hand to hand, into the air, etc. All casual like - as if it were a toy. Callous disregard for his job and totally destroyed the evidence.

[cisstrd]

I don't doubt the story at all and I am sad to hear that, but I have to make the following points:

-) Even if no fingerprints are taken, the other points I made stand.

-) Anecdotal evidence is weak/no evidence, though I will not disregard it completely.

-) Not sure where this happened, call me biased (I really don't want to open a can of worms here), but I have more believe in the police of Austria compared to many other (including the USA for example) countries. [1]

[1] I don't mean to imply the capabilities are different, I want to say that I think the police in the USA, especially on the level of "normal" police officers, seems to get away with far more misconduct / inappropriate behaviour than a police officer in Austria ever would. Crime rates also have a huge impact, in areas of high crime rates or under-funded police especially "smaller" cases will not be investigated properly, et cetera...

[rjbwork]

Yeah. Two worlds I guess. Large southern US city vs Austria.

To make matters worse, it was most likely payback from a person who previously vandalized his car and got arrested for it. The cop wouldn't even listen.

[rahimnathwani]

Many years ago, our family home in London was burgled. The burglar(s) left being a pocket knife. Perhaps it had helped them get in.

As in your case, the police did not bag it or take it away. I was surprised as, even if there were no fingerprints, the engraved inscription on the knife would make it unique and would surely provide some clue. They told us to bin it, which we did.

They did not hold out much hope that they would find the perpetrators or our belongings. They suggested we go around to local pawn shops to see if any of our stuff showed up.

[tonylemesmer]

Excuses i have heard from Police before for not taking fingerprints are that its not worth it for minor crimes. The cost of forensics is not insignificant and even for theft from a vehicle more than 10 years ago it simply wasn't investigated.

Obviously card skimming is a massively serious offence and should be thoroughly investigated.

[banku_brougham]

this is it right here. police can't launch a manhunt for petty property crimes (sorry about your car, but that is what this is called). card skimming is a hugely scalable crime that can tear the fabric of electronic transactions.