I finally made it down to the police station to report the stolen IPod and Nintendo DS. I knew I had waited too long, but I wanted to hear what was being said. Here is what I was told by an officer in our city. Whether or not this is the law where you are, you may want to check, but if what I learned today is true, this information is something that we, as children of adult adopted children with FASD and RAD, really need to know.
Here is what I learned:
1) Don't wait more than 24 hours to report stolen items, regardless of who steals them. Police officers consider these "dead leads" and really don't focus on them when there are so many other more critical things to deal with.
2) If an adult child is living with you and you have problems with him/her, you cannot call the police if you ask them to leave and they won't. You have to go through formal eviction procedures.
3) If you give permission for an adult child to live in your home and that child steals from you, then it is not a criminal matter. It is a civil matter.
4) If an adult child is not living with you and you want to protect yourself and your possessions, you really should get an order for protection or a harrassment order completed.
I spoke to the officer for quite sometime and got a really factual lecture. He mentioned several times that we had done our duty to "king and country" and that now we needed to protect ourselves, our children and our property.
I know he's right. But it's still hard.
1 comment:
And on the list of things I never thought I would need to know: if you un-install your door knobs and dead bolts and take them to a lock-smith it really doesn't cost all that much to have them all re-keyed. Far less than replacing the locks.
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