50 found phones.

absolutely nothing on this story outside of this website. of course it will be on every other website soon enough creating a false impression of original authority sources.

the tesco one seems real.

sadly I've learned that too.

Sounds like being honest doesn't pay off.

Because he thinks he knows absolutely everything - guy is an ass clown.

Just big brother coming to reality. The Brits have got it the worst right now. The USA doesn't even compare to how fucked the UK is. They are living in a culture of surveillance and government control. You can hardly wipe your ass without a CCTV cameras making sure you have properly wiped front to back. If anywhere is close to policing thought crimes, they definitely got to be closest. America will get there soon enough, and Canada isn't far behind them.

Yup, not worth getting involved with the cops for anything, even when you're trying to do the right thing. A few years back I was at a buddy's place and this kid was there trying to sell buddy "his" snowboard. I asked him what he had and what he wanted for it. it was a good deal so I bought it off him. A week later I'm over at another friend's house and he starts going off about how him and his brother's board's got stolen out of their garage. I ask him if one wasn't by chance a 159 burton custom. Sure as fuck it was. So I bring him over the board, eat my loss on the money, and tell him who took it. The plan was that we go kick this kid's ass and deal with the situation as is. What happens? They end up calling the police and saying I'll be a witness. Fuck me, what a god damn headache that turned into. I'm lucky I got out of it without being charged myself. The a couple months later I wind up getting SUbpeona'd as a witness, miss a week of work, which put me out about $1500 + travel costs to get to the court room. I get there and show up for court, and they don't even need me. Didn't even so much as call my name. Apparently they settled with the Crown behind closed doors.

Never again will I do the "right" thing if I find myself in this sort of situation again. Fuck the police...

Kinda looks to be a real case and yet it could it be an April Fools joke - note the publication date. Not sure.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ng-police.html

But regardless of whether that particular story is true or not, similar events really do happen - being helpful can, and often does, backfire badly with the good samaritan being treated as a criminal.

Furthermore, many people avoid getting involved due to the fear of getting caught up in a criminal / civil case, such as being subpoenaed as a witness and losing time from work...

Some may think taking a few hours off from work for court is no biggie - but that's not how it works in many places, such as the city of Philadelphia (they're working to streamline things, so it may get better, but still) ... often one spends much of the day waiting for the case to be called, and then often someone doesn't show up or whatever, and the person then has to come back again, and possibly even more many times, losing even more time from work. And then there are issues of intimidation and lack of regard of witnesses and good samaritans by the court system.

There are many instances, of course, where it works out fine, but very often the layperson has no way of knowing how things will turn out until it's too late so many people avoid getting involved to begin with to avoid getting caught up in a quagmire.

Ron

what i learned in this thread:

stories about good / chartable acts backfiring are good for viral marketing campaigns. take note.

We found a bunch of city street signs and stop signs in my moms rental house, so we called the police to return them and they said we'd better find a way to dispose of them because they would fine us $75 per sign if we turned them in. I was about 12 so I lined my bedroom walls with them and used the big ones to patch up my skateboard ramp.

heh, fuck the police indeed. i was arrested once for 'stealing a bike'. of course i never stole anything. what happened was this guy (who was known for stealing shit around town) was caught riding a stolen bike, told the cops i sold it to him. at the time i was in college in another town and they come right to my class, arrested me and put me in a holding cell. i spend a few hours there until the cops from the other town (where it happened) came and get me. after talking to the chief of police for about an hour there i was able to convince him i had nothing to do with it. why they arrested me on the word of a known criminal, i will never understand.

what a stupid police