A car got hit and the offending (at fault party) took off (hit and run). Now in the damage he lost his plate at the scene. State trooper runs it and very soon finds the guy. (he had an outstanding warrant) and a few other issues. Got arrested and car impounded. NOW for outstanding warrant he has to stay in jail, NO BAIL, till he sees judge who determines his fate. Judge cancelled court do to storm so guy must stay in jail. We will cut the judge some slack for that. Meanwhile the young state trooper has been elevated to icon status for his roll in all this by the locals. Just wanted to share!!!
- Thread starter JOCCO
- Start date
kcm.MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- NW Minnesota
Only thing I see in question here is in proving that the vehicle belonging to the found license plate is actually the vehicle that did the hit and run. Sound be pretty easy to prove one way or another, but unless proven, all the guy has to do is say he lost it or it was stolen....or something to that effect.
I say well done!
I had a guy hit my 16' lowboy trailer in Houston traffic about 30 years ago, while at a stop light next to Loop 610 south, I believe. Since I was helping out on the job, guys at work replaced the fender for me. Still, wasn't a perfect match for the other fender.
I say well done!
I had a guy hit my 16' lowboy trailer in Houston traffic about 30 years ago, while at a stop light next to Loop 610 south, I believe. Since I was helping out on the job, guys at work replaced the fender for me. Still, wasn't a perfect match for the other fender.
Crazy Horse
Well-known Member
I see nothing wrong with the result of all of this BUT KCM's reply is an interesting one. First thing that comes to my mind is how did a license plate get left behind, that would be a one in a thousand chance of happening. Has anyone ever seen a license plate fall off during an accident? I guess it might have been hanging on by a thread or maybe just wired on (like temporarily) which makes me wonder about it being stolen? That said though, if the guy with the missing plate was involved, then staying in jail seems a logical result, I can't see anyone arguing against it.
fixerupper
Well-known Member
Thirty years ago, maybe a little longer, a drunk driver pulled into my lane and flattened the fence along the lane. Then he turned around and took off. When I looked at the carneage I found his license plate. Got a new fence out of it.
timcasbolt
Well-known Member
I've seen license plates ripped off during a collision many times.
Case Nutty 1660
Well-known Member
I have Plenty run through my fences many times a year in the past 50 years I have yet to see more than one try to put the fence back up and that was a deputy that had not put his car in "P" when he got out and it backed across the county road through the ditch and through my fence, he used what he had to put back the badly stretched wire with some light electric wire,, I have found the plate of vehicles after going through the fences at least 5 times, once i actually got a few bucks from one,, I do have to laugh at the comment above that the cop is some kind of hero for finding the plate,,, wow its not rocket science to look over the outfit it is registered to for damage,, just had a drunk drive through one a week or so ago and he took out 6 wood posts and over 90 feet of fence,, its partly woven wire so its a Mess to say the least, they arrested the guy but he has nothing so again its my job to pay and fix the mess he created nothing new there,, drinkers are really bad for thinking they are good to drive when they are far from it not to mention how accepted drinking and driving is still today its a joke, they are lucky i do not have the say on it as they would get a far better lesson than they do
flembo
Well-known Member
The license plate comes off quite often actually, when you slam on the brakes the car does a nose dive then when it makes contact the nose bounces back up and away often ripping off the plate. I was a Police Officer for 10 yrs. and saw that more than once. It was also discussed in accident reconstruction training sessions and that was the explanation given, makes sense to me.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
Somebody stole his plate and left it at an accident scene? Give me a break any judge that would believe that is dumb as a fence post.
kcm.MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- NW Minnesota
I've seen idiots trying to talk their way out of wrong-doing, while everyone (including them) is watching it right there on video, with faces shown.
It's pitiful how some folks weasel away from their actions even when caught red-handed.
Mutt and Jeff
Member
They removed the whole bail thing here.
They just release them.
"hey come back for your trial" "OK?"
They just release them.
"hey come back for your trial" "OK?"
KC from what a sheriff told me real recently this " someone stole my car, stole my plate, I let a friend use it etc. does not hold up anymore!!! They have a few ways around it. As one other said the trooper checked the car over and concluded it was the one who hit and run. Kind of like accident reconstruction. Got to give them credit they are pretty good at it around me.
37chief
Well-known Member
- Location
- California
The cop is no hero, he is just doing his job. I had my car stolen. Three months later I got it back. I found a good finger print on some tape where thief done some wire repair. I took it to the police. It was a complete waste of time for me. The tape probably went in the trash when I left the police station. What was I thinking? the police wasn't going to run a finger print check for a stolen 87 Buick. That was 20 years ago.Stan
Someone broke into my office, stole 2 computers. Left an excellent fingerprint on the window, cops lifted it with tape. Didn't hear anything for several months- called the cops, they said they caught the guy who did my crime and he had done several others as well. They tried him for something else, sent him to prison for a couple of years, nothing ever got done on mine, so no chance of restitution or whatever. I guess "justice was served" because he went up the river, but seemed like I was kind of left behind.
Gee Stan there are so many things with that thought process. One you, not the cops have to prove to the cops that the finger print is indeed involved in the theft of the car. That print may have belonged to a mechanic the thief took the car to or what ever. Any snot nose kid, working his/her first job as a public defender would be able to get that piece of tape tossed as inadmissible because 1: the cops didn't find it 2: you removed it from the vehicle and took it in (can't prove it came off the car) 3: can't actually prove it was the thief (could be a mechanics, or just some guy who did a repair for the real thief). Piece of tape is ruled inadmissible and the whole arrest goes out the window. Most likely the cops wouldn't have been able to get a judge to issue a warrant. And the cops know all about the type of evidence that will result in a good conviction. Ain't their fault. The rules have to be followed.
Rick
jimg.allentown
Well-known Member
There is a such thing as "chain of evidence." If you found that pieced of tape in the car, you should have left it right where it was. In order to be admissible in court, it would have to be witnessed by an officer of the law, processed, and chain of custody would have to be established. Just taking a piece of tape with a fingerprint on it to the police proves nothing. It could have come from anyplace. As evidence, it has no value.
I agree with 37Chief officer just did his job. Now a little story: The entrance to my farm is marked with a row of short poles with pretty flowers planted in between. The pole are left over power poles set four feet in the ground and three feet out and the flowers are care free ones so there is little maintenance. The poles don't look like much and I have had two incidents where people have hit it. The first time a kid/child was showing off for his buddies and lost control pushed a pole over against the side of the hole, I just stood it back up a packed some more dirt. This fall another individual either missed or deliberately drove over the flowers and through the poles. Did not break the pole but did pull it out of the ground, it had to lift the vehicle (truck I suspect, off the ground because the hole was not dramatically widened. The pole is a 10 inch treated pole and it is not broken so I just dug out the hole, pick up the pole and reset it--no cost just exercise for about an hour. The truck, left his right inner fender and marker lights and some other bits and pieces, it will not pass safety inspection next year without repair which will not be cheap.
And in 3 to 6 years the kids will forget and some crazy kid will try again with the same or worse result. They just never learn!
Two years ago someone decided they couldn't see around the corner, there was 10 feet from the corn to the road, so they drove in the field and knocked down 4-5 rows for 50+ feet. That time I called the sheriff, just told him happens again I'll put out a spike strip. Can I do that?-sure, it's in my field not a public road. It won't be so easy to get it out and I'll know who it is! In fact paint the strip day-glo so I can find it in the fall.
And in 3 to 6 years the kids will forget and some crazy kid will try again with the same or worse result. They just never learn!
Two years ago someone decided they couldn't see around the corner, there was 10 feet from the corn to the road, so they drove in the field and knocked down 4-5 rows for 50+ feet. That time I called the sheriff, just told him happens again I'll put out a spike strip. Can I do that?-sure, it's in my field not a public road. It won't be so easy to get it out and I'll know who it is! In fact paint the strip day-glo so I can find it in the fall.
flying belgian
Well-known Member
I question weather you can put out a nail strip. One of my farms is along a busy snowmobile hyway. I asked my insur agent what happens if snowmobile goes into my field, tips over and gets hurt? Can they sue me? He said yes they can sue you but there is not a judge in the world that would award him damage. You cannot however use entrapment. In other words you cannot dig a trench or string a wire for the sole purpose of stopping them. With your nail strip put out for the sole purpose of stopping them, what happens if some one drives over it, loses control of vehicle and tips over?
Kansasredneck
Member
Sad to say, but a lot of them are.
danofarming
Member
Park, leave, forget, your Spike tooth harrow in that spot.
Sean Feeney
Well-known Member
Father in law got hit from behind some years back, driver took off the cops came and told him this is going to be easy, fleeing drives front plate was wedged between his step and toe bumper.
Billy Shafer
Well-known Member
I like the someone else was driving. Defense.
Steve@Advance
Well-known Member
Yes, plates do come off, especially when there is a front plate.
Typically the front plate mount is a plastic add on, minimally attached. Then there are the plastic bumper shells that commonly get ripped off in an accident.
With the tag, combined with left behind broken parts, match the parts to the vehicle, match the tag to the vehicle, match the vehicle to the owner, pretty air tight.
And so many video cameras in use, both private and public, hard to get away with much these days.
Question is, how willing are the police to get involved?
From my observation, if it's only property damage, chances are they will let the insurance companies battle it out.
If there were other victims, additional crimes involved, or evidence is court ordered, only then the investigation gets started.
Typically the front plate mount is a plastic add on, minimally attached. Then there are the plastic bumper shells that commonly get ripped off in an accident.
With the tag, combined with left behind broken parts, match the parts to the vehicle, match the tag to the vehicle, match the vehicle to the owner, pretty air tight.
And so many video cameras in use, both private and public, hard to get away with much these days.
Question is, how willing are the police to get involved?
From my observation, if it's only property damage, chances are they will let the insurance companies battle it out.
If there were other victims, additional crimes involved, or evidence is court ordered, only then the investigation gets started.
they should pass a state wide law that if anyone is proven guilty for leaving the scene of an accident they have to spend 6 months in the county jail where thy live. then make sure its all over the news for two weeks so then maybe if people realize what will happen to them they will quit leaving the scene of an accident. same law should be passed on a motorist's that flees the cops. our judicial system is failing us big time.
Michael Soldan
Well-known Member
Exactly ! A licence plate is made of the thinnest metal and it has oblong slots to attach it to the vehicle. These oblong slots allow for any difference in the width of the mounting screws. It doesn't take much to rip a licence plate off of a vehicle , one could do it with their bare hands, so in an impact its isn't the least bit unusual for a vehicle to lose its plate or the entire bumper since most are now plastic. I would think that a police office would look first for evidence coming from the hit and run vehicle..no hero there , just a cop doing what he is supposed to.
Evidence admissibility in criminal cases is a minefield. Whole weeks are spent by both sides, and a judge may delay a case for days deciding on evidence. It is a very fractious part of law.
An example. Suppose you rent a house to a guy, and after he moves out you find a gun in the attic. You take the gun(personally) to the police, and they test fire it, finding it matches the gun used in the Zodiac Killer crime spree. They locate the previous tenant, and can tie him to time and place of the Zodiac killings, and match a partial print to the tenant. He is arrested all based on the gun given to the cops. I can tell you that any DA will fight tooth and nail to have it admitted in the trial.
Was it all fruit of a poisonous tree? Was it honest citizen doing honest work by giving the gun over to the police as he cleaned house? Only thing I can guarantee is that the evidence hearing will last for days, or weeks, and it could go either way.
Switchflicker
Member
Well, everyone who does a good work deserves an 'Attaboy' once in a while.
Just doing his job? Yes, but what would the masses say if he missed seeing the plate on the ground?
Be very careful where you go with that leaving the seen jazz. Happened to me because some ^%$&^&^$''# old fart turned me in. Bumped the end of a bumper on a car. Not a scratch. I am ONE... YES ONE parking space over. This old fart calls the cops. The idiot cop comes and writes me up for leaving the scene. Have to go to court. The stupid cop and the old fart, neither one of them show up for court. The judge is FURIOUS and tounge lashes the crap out of me!!!! AND then has to throw the case out cause my accusers don't show up. And you think the court systems are not &_/$# up?
Crazy Horse
Well-known Member
Jeffcat .... but Pinball said you should have been in jail, free meals for six months and no job when you get out.
Brian Jasper co. Ia
Well-known Member
If they're like the cops around here, if there's no ticket money in it for them they aren't at all motivated...
YES. Happened to me. I slid off the road into a snowbank one night.The car was 4WD, so I just backed out and went home. When I got there and got some light on the front end, I noticed the front plate was missing. When I went back to the site of the "difficulty" the plate was sitting on top of the snowbank. Looked like the plastic screw mounts in the bumper pulled out when I backed up. So, yea, it can happen.
MANY years ago my Dad was "T-boned" in town, slow speed, so no personal injury, and the license plate of the guy that hit him left a perfect facsimile of itself in the stuck gravel road dirt on his driver's door, clear as could be!
NO drama, no hit and run, but a clear mark left by the license plate.
If it had turned out differently, I wonder if "Barney" could have tracked the "perp" down?
Once while driving a tractor trailer, when returning to the yard with a 48' flatbed, a car followed me in and the driver stated I left the scene of an accident. The driver was making threats and it started to get ugly. I told the driver to get lost so to speak, and recollecting where this accident could have happened, it dawns on me that this jerk was too close to the trailer at an intersection that had a little incline to it. I rolled back slightly when starting off and he was saying I hit him. He should not have been so close, you can't feel something like this in the cab of the truck. Whether I did or not, I drove away because I had no idea anything had happened. In another incident, an elderly man had tried to turn at an intersection, as I was making the turn and the truss trailer's angle iron suspended from chain hooked onto the car. I kept going until I felt something like a brake hanging up, looked back and saw that while shifting a couple of gears, I had dragged this car into a curb, totaling it, twisting the car and popping all the side windows. I had no idea until well after the fact. Should have done 6 months should I ? I don't think so. People are idiots all the time, can't fix stupid.
catalina0029
Member
Unfortunately this is exactly why I installed a drivers camera in my car. It has both front and rear facing cameras. It records continuously.
I drive on a very busy stretch of I-94 in NW Indiana. It will automatically record an impact event, even if the car is parked.
M-MAN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Bostic, NC
Of course the trooper was just doing his job. That's why he gets an at a boy. Considering the highest Leo's in the country are as dirty as a hog in a mud puddle it's refreshing to see a regular cop doing what he's supposed too.
rockyridgefarm
Well-known Member
Justice isn't served until after a trial and judgement by his peers. Seems a lot of guys on here forget this.
Having investigated or helped investigate literally THOUSANDS of car accidents over 20 plus years in LE, I can state without hesitation that license plates come off in accidents all the time. I've had hit and runs where not just the license plate, but the whole bumper has been left at the scene. Heck, I've found peoples (the bad guys) wallets at burglary scenes!
I had a doctors office broken into. Bad Guy stole all the narcotics. I had 2 perfect whole hand prints on the window he slid up to get into the building. I got out my Junior G Man fingerprint kit and took the prints as evidence. Turned in my report expecting to be at least well thought of for doing such a swell job. What happened? I got my butt reamed bad for creating a small mountain of paperwork!!! Turns out that in order to use prints, the prints had to be physically transported, with a perfect chain of evidence, from way up in northern NY on the Canadian border to HQ in Albany by a Senior Investigator who never let them out of his sight. After that they had to be processed at the lab and then run through some super secret system that cost millions to buy and thousands to use, and even then if there was no suspect it was a 50/50 chance it would be wasted effort. IOW, it wasn't like on NCIS where they take a print at the crime scene and 3.7 seconds later they have the BG's name, DOB, address, high school graduation pic, complete work history, drivers license photo, etc.
Learned my lesson quick. Worst thing that ever happened in the line of LE myths was the idea that a fingerprint was a sure thing for catching the bad guy.
Crazy Horse
Well-known Member
Bret ..... I guess some of the regulars here know the answer to this question already but here goes ..... you are obviously in law
enforcement (to some degree) as a living right? So a policeman of some kind who likes tractors? I guess that's possible LOL !!!
enforcement (to some degree) as a living right? So a policeman of some kind who likes tractors? I guess that's possible LOL !!!
Milwaukee judges hear the 'stolen car' a few times and accept it, seems a lot of carjackers and thieves for cars warming up, a few recently at day care- drop off kid and someone comes up to car with pistol, grabs car and sometimes leaves it a few blocks away- or makes a dope run, recovered after smashed a week later. 13 year olds stealing car, doing some hot wiring of older models- but most just double team driver with knives and pistols to get a running car stopped for light, in parking lot of store- wait for open door and keys displayed. Couple times car stolen with kid in back seat. Stolen license plates happen- steal a car or mini van and maybe steal license plates from a car at repair shop or minor wreck that is close enough- a GM minivan stolen and later cop runs plates that come back as a not stolen GM minivan of about right year but off one or 2- lot of 2005 to 2010 GRAY/TAN MINIVANS with smoked windows for mobile drug sales. A few cars being stolen in Madison- 2 at least were attempted car jack with standard trannies, quickly abandoned- one may have been vintage VW Beetle. Lots of plate get taken- I had one set taken, got replacements and 4 months or so later got a letter from DOT that plates had been found on stolen car in Illinois. Between the petty thieves and some professionals, the minor liars are getting a break some times. hit and run owner excuse- somebody stole it while I was in jail for something silly--and previous case was couple teenagers that had tried to carjack second car that previous week- but one got shot in leg by lady with recent concealed carry permit and old Colt Police Positive with wadcutters that made very nasty wound. Guy I know had car stolen by baby mamas sister when he was hauled in for failure to pay support, bad check- car went to Illinois, skipped paying tolls and recovered in Indiana with some MJ still in baggies. Damage to property charge from hit and run, gas fill and run retail theft charges by license plate number recorded, took awhile to get dropped- alibi defense with sheriff deputy as witness -yes he was in jail 200, 300 miles away from scene of crime. Amish rarely get buggies stolen- but it has happened according to reports archives. RN
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