Prevent Crime
By: Jake | August 11, 2008 | Category: Home and Family
In February a New Jersey news station wanted to see how people reacted when they witnessed a crime. They set up a scenario where actors stole wallets from other actors at a restaurant and then filmed the reactions of restaurant patrons. Many people didn't do anything until the victims noticed their wallet was gone, that's when they sprang into action. Those who did react generally went into full force—one lady chased a purse snatcher out the door and one guy even punched out the staged culprit.
My girlfriend and I recently witnessed someone steal a pair of headphones from a store in the mall. My girlfriend wanted to stop the thief and I thought we didn't need to do anything because the store alarm would go off when the person left. It didn't go off.
So we were left with a dilemma, should we chase after her or notify the staff? Since we didn't know if our thief was armed, we opted to notify the store's staff. They thanked us and told us it wasn't our responsibility to chase down thieves. We were a little taken aback since they didn't think it was necessary to catch the culprit (who was still in the mall) and made fun of us when we pressed the issue. We wrote a complaint letter to the company.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are an eyewitness to a crime, it's a good idea to tell the victim or store before you storm off to chase the culprit down (if you are so inclined). If you are a victim of a crime, you can search for various types of victim's assistance at the U.S. Department of Justice's Directory of Victim Services web page.
If you witness or suspect other types of criminal activity such as illegal drug smuggling, Internet crime, or even happen upon a suspicious package, you can find the appropriate contact on our Pueblo website. Remember though that the best place to go to report any crime is your local police department.
Have you ever witnessed a crime? If so, what did you do?
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