Your implication is that the story is made up?
Er no, I'm sure you have much better things to do.
If you choose to believe it's a fairy story it's no skin off my nose mate.
Good. I felt that the implication in your post was that "Plod" got scared and ran away, but you have now added:
The coppers I worked with were top drawer and they were just as frustrated at the hierarchy stopping them from getting a job done.
and I'm pleased, because I think it puts things more into perspective. There are very few coppers who would arrive at said site under those circumstances, look at each other, pull a face and run away. Rather, the "can do" gene that Brilliant Stuff mentions kicks in, and ways and means are employed to retrieve the stolen car and detain the suspects. In the Met, we are lucky. If I find myself in a similar situation I can call on a large proportion of my 35000ish mates to come and help. In many of the county forces, they seem to be
massively under-resourced for the size of the areas they patrol, so I have loads of sympathy for two PCs in a diesel Astra turning up at the gates of our travelling friends and thinking, "I don't fancy getting shot / beaten up / eaten by dogs today - let's have a rethink..." That doesn't mean, "Let's give in and let them keep the car," but rather, "Let's set up observations / an operation, etc"
And as for Flaxton Flyer's:
You're the copper, mate - you work it out. Breach of the Peace? Threatening behaviour? Wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area during the hours of darkness?
I am indeed. Thank you
I like the last one, but I suspect it wouldn't stand up in court any more than the "standing by a pedestrian crossing with intent to cross the road" would
My point is, I find the whole story a little hard to believe. To be fair, perhaps it is because I don't want to believe it from a professional standpoint, but I would like to make it clear that the British police don't make a habit of arresting people just because we think they are a bit whingey about having their stuff nicked. And in any case there aren't laws that let us do it unless they go really berserk. And that's fairly unusual.
Stories change to fit the point the teller is trying to illustrate (no, FF, I'm not saying you are lying) and if I had a pound for the number of times an understandably stressed victim of crime has interpreted a lack of ability on the part of the police to act at that moment, whether due to lack of resources / lack of legal powers / whatever, as:
They were not interested in the slightest
then I wouldn't be flying bloody R22s!
