About 1:30 this morning, Ty heard someone ring the doorbell. She also said she heard someone knock at the door and pound on the garage. But, she thought she might just have been dreaming. In fact, when she woke up this morning she said "I had the worst dream last night. But, maybe it wasn't a dream." She got up and looked out of the girls' window and saw a car parked on the street (pretty unusual in itself where we live). Unfortunately though, she did not wake me. So, I knew nothing until this morning. When I went downstairs and looked out the front door, I saw potting soil on the porch. When I opened the door, I found our potted plant sitting upright on the porch. But, it had been thrown against the door. As I looked down to the sidewalk, I found a half full half gallon of Southern Comfort and a pair of girl's flip flops. Walking around to the side of the house, I found an undershirt and noticed the plant had also been thrown against the garage door.
I checked for signs of vandalism. But, everything else looked in tact. I wasn't going to give it too much more thought. I figured it was just some kids out getting drunk and was glad it wasn't worse. But, then when I went into the back yard, I found a bra and panties and noticed the ornamental grass had been ripped off, in what could be a sign of some sort of struggle. I decided to call the police.
When I described what we had found to the police, they seemed very unconcerned. The guy on the phone asked "Do you want to file a report or did you just want to let us know about it?" I said "I think I should file a report." They sent an officer out who was equally unconcerned. He took our statement, walked around with us and then asked where our trash can was. I asked him why he wanted to know this. He had assumed the clothing came from our trash can. I told him it had not (that's why we called, we thought a girl might have been in trouble). He went back to his car, filled out the report, had Ty sign it and got ready to leave. He said the odds of catching whoever did this were "slim to none" (I think those were his words). My thought was "Yes, the odds are exactly zero if you don't even try.". I'm not expecting them to send out Columbo over a potted plant. If that had been the only thing or even that and the alcohol, I wouldn't even have called. But, it looks to me like something may have happened here that might later be reported as a crime. I asked him if he was going to take the "evidence" with him. He told us to just throw it away.
I'm sitting here stunned. There have been so many stories in Cincinnati of people not willing to get involved after crimes have been committed. But, in this small incident, we tried to do what we thought was the right thing and got about zero response out of the police. More than likely what happened was just some kids out having a "good time". Maybe the underwear left in the yard was just a prank to make it look like something happened. But, I'm amazed the police didn't even investigate a little and did not even take the evidence with them in case someone reports something later on.
The pictures I took (the police didn't take any) are here.
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