This past weekend the wife and I went to the drive-in again. We had read on Yelp about how people stop by a local Italian pizzeria and get strombolis to eat with the movie. It was rated so high, we had to give it a shot.
The wait for the stromboli was long, but at least there was entertainment. A walked into the pizza place, went up to the counter and said, “I have some $1200 speakers still wrapped with the tags on them. I’ll sell it to you for $100.” He points outside to a lady with a shopping cart with the speakers. He couldn’t have made it more obvious that the goods were stolen. The guy behind the counter called over a co-worker and told him the story. I thought the co-worker would call the police, but instead, he went out to inspect the merchandise.
Looking back on this situation, I wondering if I should have taken action. I was so surprised/entertained by the whole thing, that my brain was operating at a “fire bad, tree pretty” level. Perhaps that situation is common place for some, but for me this was highly unusual. Should I have called the police? I’m not very familiar with San Jose police numbers and it clearly wasn’t a 911 situation. Is leaving it to the pizzeria owner a good course of action. After all, it his business and his employee participating. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
[Note: The movie, Bridesmaids, was worse than I thought. I thought it was supposed to be funny. It was just sad. If you are forced to go to a wedding movie, opt for Something Borrowed it is at least 10 times better on the Lazy Man’s Imprecise Quantification Scale.]Here are the links for last week. By the time you finish them it will be almost time for links for this week:
Money Writers:
- Brip Blap explains why routine living can leak your money.
- Digerati Life says online fraud may mean losing more than your money.
- Frugal Dad writes debt free and happy, but where to go from here?
- Generation X Finance on how to get your landlord to pay for renovations.
- Million Dollar Journey explains stock chart reversal patterns – wedge and triple tops.
- Money Smart Life with how to invest without wetting your pants.
- My Dollar Plan asks is inflation impacting your spending habits?
- The Sun’s Financial Diary posts use oil stocks as a hedge against rising gas prices.
Top PF Posts:
- The Smarter Wallet talk about dealing with job redundancy and job cuts: stay positive.
- Free Money Finance presents ten questions to ask a financial advisor.
- My Journey to Millions asks do you compartmentalize spending decisions also?
- Not Made of Money gives 5 tips for starting to save money right now.
- DINKS Finance says never go to bed angry about money.
- PT Money asks do I need renter’s insurance?
- Five Cent Nickel on why people spend too much.
- Money Crush with three ways to say no (when part of you really wants to say yes.)
- Saving Advice says share a wardrobe: strange ways to save money.
- One Frugal Girl writes on how to save on maternity clothes.
Actually as an ex-police officer, I can tell you that it would have been appropriate to use 911. You suspected you were witnessing a crime in progress. That’s a valid reason to dial 911. It might not have been a priority call depending on what else the officers were doing at the time, but it’s worth reporting.
That being said, I don’t know what I would have done either.
Imagine if those were your speakers. You would probably wish someone notify the police. Maybe Hazzard can tell you, is there anything you can do now? That said, if the police are anything like the police in my jurisdiction they’re not going to be concerned about solving anything even if you hand them everything on a silver platter with a bow tie. My brother had a bad experience where he knew who broke into his house, the police went there and found all his property sitting in living room, there was a trail of footprints through the pristine snow leading directly from a broken back door to the thief’s house, yet the police couldn’t figure it out.
You are the second person I’ve heard describe that movie as “sad.”
You have nice inclusion in your list. May be you want to take a look at my latest blog post on how to prevent a financial disaster.
http://onecentatatime.com/how-to-prevent-a-fnanacial-disaster/
Thanks for the mention!
I would have call the police. These little crimes are the beginning of bigger crimes. If we don´t do nothing about it, we will live in a world without any justice at all.
Just my opinion.
If this is on ongoing thing, it would be good for the police to know. From your description, it seems that the parties were comfortable with each other, which suggest an ongoing arrangement (or possible just some really stupid criminals who trust random strangers).
I know the feeling. I had been in college for a couple of weeks (moving from a town of less than 1000) when I saw a drug deal go down a few blocks from campus. The deal was done and the guys had gone their separate ways before I realized what had occurred. Of course, this was 1993, so I wouldn’t have had a cell phone anyway.