Bike theft victim left high, dry by police

Oct. 24, 2005 -- Bob Trimmier wanted to report to police that his bicycle was stolen, but the police wouldn't let him.

Well, that's one way for the cop's to reduce the city's crime stats.

Trimmier's Trek 820 mountain bike was stolen Sept. 13 from his van as it was parked in his driveway in the 400 block of N. Pinecrest St.

"This was pretty brazen, as my van has automatically locking back doors. So, someone had to go open the front to unlock the back," a frustrated Trimmier wrote later to Ald. Michael Murphy.

Trimmier

Trimmier called the 3rd District Police Station to try to report the theft.

He was transferred downtown, he wrote to Murphy, "because everything's apparently routed through there. I was put on hold for 20 minutes and then told I needed to be transferred again, because they couldn't do anything until I was assigned a case number. When I spoke to the next person, I was asked if I had the serial number of the bike. I said not at my fingertips, but I could probably get it at some point. I was told they wouldn't take a report without it."

Trimmier said he didn't actualIy expect police to recover the bike. "I just wanted it on record that a crime occurred in the neighborhood. I was told again that they wouldn't take it."

Trimmier said he told person taking his call (but not his report) that he planned to call his alderman.

"She told me to 'go right ahead,' " Trimmier wrote. "So I did."

That was just the first chapter.

"The next day, I got a voicemail from Sgt. (name deleted) to the effect that he understood that I had a 'problem' with a bike," Trimmier said in his Sept. 29 e-mail to the alderman. "YES, I HAD A PROBLEM! IT WAS STOLEN. OUT OF MY VAN. IN MY DRIVEWAY! Several attempts to reach him were fruitless. He was either out of the office or off. When I asked for his direct number, I was told he didn't have one. I left messages with my home phone number as well. None were returned."

" Maybe he's like Major Major in Catch 22, who always instructed his orderly, 'even when I'm in, I'm really
out,' " Trimmier concluded.

Murphy followed up with district Capt., James Harpole.

"I was very disappointed to hear of the response Mr. Trimmier received from the District 3 Sgt. assigned to his case," Murphy wrote."While he and I both understand that bicycle theft cannot be a top priority for the police department, Mr. Trimmier did deserve at least a call back from the Sgt."

The captain, (surprise!) replied promptly to the alderman.

"Thank you for the information," Harpole wrote to Murphy. "I am also disappointed. Sgt. (name deleted) is actually one of the better sergeants, so it is a surprise to me that this happened. He is someone I can depend on and that is why I had selected him to handle the call. I hope the desk persons got him the messages. He is a patrol sergeant, so he is out most of the shift. I will look into the matter. I am actually going on vacation as of today, so I will have the day shift lieutenant, who actually supervises the sergeants, look into it as well."

He concluded: "Mr. Trimmier can also call me or Lt. Alexander. I will be back on 10-11-05."

The captain, however, did not leave a number for Trimmier to call, nor did he copy Trimmier on his e-mail to Murphy. The alderman forwarded it to Trimmier.

"I respectfully waited a week to allow them (police) time to look into the situation and when I didn't hear from them I called the 3rd District," Trimmier said in an interview. "Nobody was home. I let the phone ring for three minutes and nobody answered. There was no voice mail."