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Operation hit our year end quota — Brooklynian

Operation hit our year end quota

garfunky
garfunky
edited November -1 in Park Slope
/rant mode on

a) how is this NOT entrapment ?

b) if the nypd really has nothing better to do , i would be happy to help them set up on 7th ave where they can write tickets to all the knuckleheads that recklessly make illegal u turns.
not good enough ?

c) nypd can begin an investigation into car i had stolen a few years ago.

:arrow: surely there is something better to do than create "crime".
:evil: :? :?:

grr !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/rant mode off

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NEW YORK (AP) - Careful what you pick up in the subway - it could lead to your arrest.

Straphanger Carlos Alayo said he learned that lesson when he picked up what he thought was a derelict wallet laying on a subway platform bench.

He said he intended to find its owner and return it, but as he went to get on the G train, he said he was stopped by police.

The 32-year-old had been ensnared in Operation Lucky Bag, an initiative from the New York City Police Department to lay decoys - shopping bags, purses, backpacks or wallets - around the subway system under the watchful gaze of officers who wait to see what passersby will do.

The decoys often contain real credit cards issued under pseudonyms to the police department. Theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a felony that could lead to jail time.

Police said that Operation Lucky Bag led to 101 arrests last year. Those individuals had a combined total of 761 prior arrests last year, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

"A person who takes or finds property which is lost or mislaid has a legal obligation to make efforts to return the property to its owner, which can include delivering the property to police," Browne said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said the decoy tactic could deter people from being good Samaritans and should be abandoned.

"I'm sure the NYPD has far more sophisticated tactics at their disposal than dropping wallets on their trains," said NCLU executive director Donna Lieberman.

Alayo said he was not arrested or charged.

Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

Comments

  • MOD
    MOD
    They should spend more time stopping those nasty ass perverts that jack-off on the trains. Blech! :evil:
  • rtraindweller
    rtraindweller
    Mamacita wrote: They should spend more time stopping those nasty ass perverts that jack-off on the trains. Blech! :evil:
    whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa??? :shock:

    i've (luckily) yet to see this!
  • garfunky
    garfunky
    yahh that kinda caught me off guard as well, but i know they exist.

    given a choice of having the nypd
    planting fake credit cards to entrap good sams
    or
    locking up those pervs

    i agree w mama ;)

    the g train still stops at 4th and union every blue moon, n'est-ce pas ?
    (just pointing out the park slope angle of the story ;) )
  • teckla
    teckla
    That's sad - if I saw a real lost wallet or purse, etc. I may be so afraid that I would get busted that I wouldn't pick it up and try to return it to the owner.
  • linusvanpelt
    linusvanpelt

    Subject: Re: Operation "hit our year end quota"

    Garfunky wrote: b) if the nypd really has nothing better to do , i would be happy to help them set up on 7th ave where they can write tickets to all the knuckleheads that recklessly make illegal u turns.
    not good enough ?

    c) nypd can begin an investigation into car i had stolen a few years ago.

    Another suggestion: set up on 5th Avenue in the early morning, bust the numerous cars that blatantly blast through red lights. Not lights just turning from yellow to red--they pull up to red lights, then keep going oor turn, as if they were stop signs. I see this all the time latety.
  • sprite
    sprite
    "A person who takes or finds property which is lost or mislaid has a legal obligation to make efforts to return the property to its owner, which can include delivering the property to police," Browne said.
    How can you prove that someone who picked up a wallet did NOT intend to return it? If I found a wallet while waiting on a subway platform, I'd get on the next train and try to contact the wallet's owner and/or police when I got home. This is a bad way to encourage good citizenship.
  • longtimesloper
    longtimesloper
    yes, i don't understand how him getting on a train with the wallet proves anything. Are they saying he should have picked up the wallet and run to the nearest police precinct and since he didn't do that, that means he is a crook? How awful!
  • kosherdave
    kosherdave
    Wow, that's terrible, They MUST have better things to do. I found a wallet a couple years ago, REALLY wanted to keep the cash (like 30-40 bucks) but guilted myself into calling the person (it had their info, or I prolly would not have felt so guilty) and I arranged for them to get it. I felt really good after the fact, but I tell you, I was close to keeping it. If the cops saw me pick it up, I would have been arrested? Even tho I did turn it in to the person WTF? That's bogus.
  • garfunky
    garfunky
    10 years ago ????
    Mrs and Mrs Garfunky are tossing various sport objects back and forth in Pros park. I have placed my altoids other unimportant stuff on the ground near my stand spot. a family with a some small kids are on the edge of the grass. after half an hour or so they leave. We have lots o space expand throw area. after a while were done , wife says oh heres your altoids.
    i say thanks but HEY i already have altoids. wtf ??

    open it up find some loose change an atm card(happens to be my bank) and a credit card.
    (what do YOU do ? - do u care ?)
    I place everything back in the altoid tin and go home.
    Take a shower look dude up in white pages. (note * not the internet)
    Call and verify he actually lost something today. have him describe contents, and then he comes to pick them up.
    brought a really nice botte of wine for us too.

    i now realize that I have to turn myself in as a criminal according to operation lucky bag. :?
    i am so ashamed for being so evil. :?

    ps i am comfortable with revealing that i used to like altoids :wink:
  • rtraindweller
    rtraindweller
    kosherdave wrote: Wow, that's terrible, They MUST have better things to do. I found a wallet a couple years ago, REALLY wanted to keep the cash (like 30-40 bucks) but guilted myself into calling the person (it had their info, or I prolly would not have felt so guilty) and I arranged for them to get it. I felt really good after the fact, but I tell you, I was close to keeping it. If the cops saw me pick it up, I would have been arrested? Even tho I did turn it in to the person WTF? That's bogus.
    you were lucky you found it with the money still inside. im sure if you'd found an empty wallet and tried to return it, there's many people who'd accuse you of keeping any money that may have been in there.
  • garfunky
    garfunky
    well ,in fairness, they did let that guy off the hook.
    cited some hundred arrests last year.
    the arrestees totalled some 700 plus priors.

    even so,
    prior criminals deserve the opporortunity to actually do something criminal in the present before they get arrested. dont they ?
  • hamilton
    hamilton

    Subject: Jose,Give me a call

    I heard about a police officer who pulled over a driver in Spanish Harlem eight years ago, the driver jumped out of the car and ran away, he was probably afraid of cops, the officer found a duffle bag full of hundreds and has been sitting by his beach front condo in Miami waiting for the driver to contact him so he can return the money :P
  • apollonia666
    apollonia666

    Subject: Re: Operation "hit our year end quota"

    Garfunky wrote: a) how is this NOT entrapment ?
    Entrapment is a lot trickier than most people realize. It's more than just a police officer enticing you or making it possible for you to do something illegal, and it's pretty hard to prove entrapment in court. Generally, three things have to have happened:

    The idea for committing the crime has to have come from the police and not from the person accused of the crime.

    The police have to have persuaded or pressured the person into committing the crime. Simply making it possible for someone to commit the crime isn't considered enough to meet this standard.

    And finally, the person has to have been someone who wouldn't have committed the crime without the police's persuasion.

    So just leaving a wallet out on a train platform doesn't make for entrapment. Not that I'm excusing this whole stupid Operation Lucky Bag, by any means -- I think treating anyone who picks up and walks away with a found item like a criminal is pretty dumb.
  • raw
    raw
    If this story is even true and not the typical sensational Daily News/New York Post garbage, I'd like to set the cops straight: the rule is FINDERS KEEPERS, LOSERS WEEPERS.

    If I found a credit card, there would be no way I would return it to the owner. I'd be terrified that the owner would accuse me of using it. I'd probably cut it up and throw it away so no one could use it.
  • sprite
    sprite
    The only explanation I can imagine is that it's somehow obvious that the wallet's "rescuer" saw the owner drop the wallet, and deliberately pocketed it instead of stopping the person and returning it. I remember a magazine once did this with 5 wallets, having one person observe while another "dropped" a wallet and walked away. One observer saw a guy approach the wallet and watch the first person till they were out of sight, and then take the wallet. I don't know if that's strictly considered theft, but it's certainly unethical.

    Still, the whole thing seems questionable to me. It's likely to discourage honest people from doing a good deed.
  • brooklynpotter
    brooklynpotter
    is it actually even illegal to pick up a stray wallet or purse? i pick up shit from the street all the time; could i be arrested for picking up an old pair of jeans hanging over a gate if it turns out there's a buck left in the pocket?

    seriously, though, does the law state that if you find someone's purse or wallet you're obligated to return it to them?
  • teckla
    teckla
    The Brian Lehrer Show is talking about this today on NPR - 93.9 at 10AM
  • nuclear redaction
    nuclear redaction
    brooklynpotter wrote: seriously, though, does the law state that if you find someone's purse or wallet you're obligated to return it to them?
    One of the Daily News articles said the law gives you 10 days to turn in lost property, which is the basis on which judges started tossing cases the last time the NYPD tried this. No more Good Samaritaning for me!

    Maybe if these little thuggettes had picked up a wallet on that A train, somebody would've been spared a beatdown.
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