(Apologies if this gets posted multiple times, my connection timed out) We called the police on Saturday morning because I found an empty backpack on our front lawn with a bunch of receipts, canceled checks, and other items strewn on the street (N Highland). Having lived for years in several other cities with random crime, it had the familiar look of a personal effect that had been stolen, rummaged through, and tossed. We called the non emergency police number and they said to call 911, which we did. But when the officer arrived she was somewhat upset that we had called 911 and made a bunch of comments complaining about the lack of a real crime scene, and basically lecturing me on when to call 911 (even though we were instructed to do so, which I didn't realize when I was talking to her because my wife had made the call while I was outside). She seemed unimpressed with the possibility that this could be a crime, but she took the bag with her. This officer's supervisor called me later to follow up on our call, and he confirmed that indeed we had done the right thing despite what the responding officer said, and that at any rate ordinary citizens are not expected to be sophisticated criminal investigators. He was appreciative that we were concerned citizens and said that as a neighborhood we should err on the side of reporting things that don't seem right. He said he would give this feedback to the officer as well. I thought that if someone had complained of a stolen bag, then they could have the physical evidence and location where it was dumped to try to piece together what had happened. Clearly I am not a professional crime fighter but we felt compelled to take a more questioning look at something unusual on our doorstep. _________________________________________________________________ Want to read Hotmail messages in Outlook? The Wordsmiths show you how. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/wedowindowslive.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns...