Better late than never, praise of GPD

My regular reader will recall that I had a lawnmower stolen last year. I did not go into much detail because I did not want to jeopardize any police work or subsequent prosecution. I'm no longer waiting.

The Greensboro police did an outstanding job. One might expect that a stolen lawnmower would not get serious attention—bigger fish and all that. That was not the case in my situation. Here's what went down.

I caught the thieves in the act, as they were loading my lawnmower into their car at the street. They ignored my shouts to stop, but I got a vehicle description, license plate number and a general description of the offenders, all of that relayed to the dispatcher at 911. Within a short while, Police Officer Donaldson came to my home to take a report. He was professional and thorough. A sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the residence of the person to whom the car was registered. A mother. Son not home. I thought that might be the end of it.

But my skepticism was unwarranted. My case was assigned to Detective Sears who took the initiative to check items sold to local pawn shops. She found a lawnmower pawned the day of the theft of the brand and size stolen from me.. I described to her its appearance as best I could recall, reminded—because it always hurt my hand when I had to adjust it—that the rubber pad of one of the wheel height adjusters was missing. Detective Sears went to the pawn shop, took a picture of my lawnmower and emailed it to me for confirmation. I circled the missing part and emailed it back to her.

 

I eventually heard from the D.A., a grand jury had indicted the guy—larceny, possession of stolen property and, because he sold it, obtaining property by false pretense. It must have helped that the thief provided his actual drivers license as I.D. when selling my mower. I also heard again from the G.P.D.—I could pick up my retrieved lawnmower.

The last I heard from the D.A. was to complete a victim impact statement. I don't know the final disposition of the matter, but I do know that the employees of the Greensboro Police Department who handled this, mostly Detective Sears, did a great job. They tracked down my property, retrieved it, identified the suspect and got an indictment—a job well done and the community well served. Kudos and thanks.