Great Police detective work
Homepaddock blogs on her stolen laptop:
Top marks to the police officer at Christchurch airport who was dealing with the case of my stolen laptop – he’s got it back.
The saga began early last month when I was careless. I put my laptop and case down while paying for parking, picked up the case when I’d finished and walked off without picking up the laptop too. When I realised what I’d done a few minutes later I returned to the pay machine to find the lap top had gone.
I reported it to a police officer who went through video footage in which he saw a bloke pick up the laptop and walk off with it. The information on how much he’d paid for parking enabled the officer to work out when he’d entered the car park so he trawled through the video from the entrance and got the car’s registration number.
He traced the driver from that to an ex-girlfriend’s address and then to two former employers but the trail went cold from there. However, he persevered, found the bloke, got him to return to the airport where he admitted he’d taken the laptop and still had it.
Now I am really impressed the officer went to such lengths, to recover one item. And some good logical thinking also. He:
- searched the video footage of the area where the laptop was taken
- Got the parking machine records to tell how much the offender had paid for parking
- Deduced the likely time he entered the carpark
- Pulled up the video from the car park entrance
- Got the car registration number
- Traced the car to an ex-girlfriend
- Traced him from there to two ex-employers
- And finally traced the offender down
I suspect many a copy may have given up, or said not much could be done. Great to see such dedication and perseverance.
Ele is also seeking feedback on whether or not the offender should be just given a warning, or charged and then given diversion.
I think it is better to have him charged, in case he offends again.