The Policeman Is Not Your Friend, Fake Abandoned Car Edition
William Grigg at LRC (sorry I lost the link) tips us off to this story. A couple in Austin saw a suspicious car (keys in ignition, windows rolled down, rope and bikini top in the back seat) parked on their street. They asked their neighbors, and nobody knew anything.
So they called the police, who showed up and left after seven minutes. The police told them not to worry about it because it wasn’t parked illegally.
Well the couple got more and more curious (there was also broken glass in the back seat and they were concocting stories of a serial killer and a stripper in the trunk) and finally decided to see if they could identify the owner of the car.
I think you know how this turns out, right? The police showed up and handcuffed them, but then let them go once they explained what happened. Oh OK, problem over? No, sixteen days later the police showed up at the guy’s house and arrested him, charging him with burglary (I think) which carried a year in prison and a $4,000 fine.
The car had been planted on their street by the police. Apparently this is a quite common tactic used by police nationwide to catch car thieves.
I am omitting some of the nuances; go read the story before repeating this. Some people commenting at the news site think the couple deserved arrest, since they were trying to open the trunk with a screwdriver.
And one commenter congratulated the 39-year-old guy for dating a 21-year-old. Ah the internet.
