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Have you ever witnessed a crime?


Magic Stars

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Ever had to give evidence to police, etc?

I witnessed a friend get brutually beaten years ago and had to give a video statement for the court. Most horrible experience I went through but thankfully the person is stlil behind bars and won't be coming out anytime soon.

Edited by Magic Stars
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witnessed a couple in my day - was unknowingly involved in one of them actually. I was duped into moving some items for a 'friend' who was apparently moving.

yeah I gave a statement in that case -really didn't have an option there as the police had pulled me over with said items in my vehicle.

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witnessed a couple in my day - was unknowingly involved in one of them actually. I was duped into moving some items for a 'friend' who was apparently moving.

yeah I gave a statement in that case -really didn't have an option there as the police had pulled me over with said items in my vehicle.

Was the goods stolen?

Terrible for you if so.

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No civilian crimes but I have witnessed several military 'crimes' (violation of the UCMJ - Unversal Code of Military Justice)... Mostly 'misdemeanor' type violations but a few

more serious ones, like insubordination - "I won't do it and you can't make me, Sarge!" (Oh yes I can).. And witnessed (first on the scene after the event actually) to a brutal murder in the barracks...

Edited by Taun
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Was the goods stolen?

Terrible for you if so.

yes they were, but after about two hours of picking my brain apart they realized I was not really involved.

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i witnessed a junkie robbing a butcher shop (!) and he wielded a knife at me when i tried to stop him.

The butcher and me wrestled him down, i took a nice punch in the face and in the end we were all taken in for questioning in the same frickin' police car....

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i witnessed a junkie robbing a butcher shop (!) and he wielded a knife at me when i tried to stop him.

The butcher and me wrestled him down, i took a nice punch in the face and in the end we were all taken in for questioning in the same frickin' police car....

In the same police car! :w00t:

We have a lot of drug addicts attempting to rob people around the shops where I live. Been many cases of people being mugged and also when the atm case is being removed that has all been stolen. :no:

Edited by Magic Stars
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In the same police car! :w00t:

We have a lot of drug addicts attempting to rob people around the shops where I live. Been many cases of people being mugged and also when the atm case is being removed that has all been stolen. :no:

yeah,i work in a shop at the main train station, i could fill a book with all the weird stuff going on there.... ;)

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How awful.

Hope your friend was okay.

Did they catch the person?

Yeah, not he wasn't badly hurt but bruised, and it was 3 men, I saw them first when they ran out with hundreds with magazines, then went back and took more stuff adn they we told the shop, and they came back and attacked us. there was 4 of us including myself, 2 ran away in the night and me and the other friend went into the shop and tried to hide

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No civilian crimes but I have witnessed several military 'crimes' (violation of the UCMJ - Unversal Code of Military Justice)... Mostly 'misdemeanor' type violations but a few

more serious ones, like insubordination - "I won't do it and you can't make me, Sarge!" (Oh yes I can).. And witnessed (first on the scene after the event actually) to a brutal murder in the barracks...

Thank you for sharing.

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Never expected this to be my first post....

I was the sole eyewitness to a murder-robbery in 1994. Testified for the prosecution and cross-examined for over 6 hours. Jury took 3 hours for a First-Degree Murder conviction and Death Penalty sentence, which was later reduced to Life Without Parole.

Source: see Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Jerome Gibson

Edited by 2Cool2BForgotten
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Never expected this to be my first post....

I was the sole eyewitness to a murder-robbery in 1994. Testified for the prosecution and cross-examined for over 6 hours. Jury took 3 hours for a First-Degree Murder conviction and Death Penalty sentence, which was later reduced to Life Without Parole.

Source: see Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Jerome Gibson

First off - Warm welcome to UM. :)

This is terrible but thank you for sharing. I bet that was very stressful for you.

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And witnessed (first on the scene after the event actually) to a brutal murder in the barracks...

Wow, Taun. How was the person murdered? (My goodness...I'm actually not sure why I'm curious about that. :unsure2: )

I've witnessed two police chases. One foot chase where police eventually shot the guy in the leg in a field behind my house when I was little and I remember giving a statement later to investigators that I didn't hear the officer warn the guy to stop, and a car chase- when I was in line at the drive through at a bank. That was sudden excitement. It seemed out of the blue, there were loud sirens and speeding vehicles which flew around from a main road and onto a side road (parallel to the drive through) and although it was only mere moments, it was a startling event! I sat there realizing that had anyone needed to get out of the way- no matter where they happened to be- there just wouldn't have been time. It was just too darned quick.

I once gave a statement to our fire Marshall re: the arson of a historic house across the street from where I used to live. A guy had just moved out of that house with his roommates- a couple with a baby- about a week previous, and here he was at my door at 10:00 o'clock at night. He told me he'd come back to the house to get books he'd left there and that he'd locked his keys in his car and he asked to use my phone to call one of his roommates. (I immediately smelled alcohol and I noticed that he seemed especially anxious and excited. Also, while telling his story, he motioned toward his car, and I saw that it was parked on my side of the street instead the driveway of the other house.) I didn't know him, but I recognized his car, and so I allowed him to call his roommate (I know :no: ) and he did and he left but he came back within minutes telling me that the house was on fire.

What had happened was, he'd set the fire and during his attempt to escape he found he'd locked his keys in his car! :w00t:

The newspaper reported that witnesses "saw him in the house shortly before the fire", but I knew firsthand that that wasn't true;. it was his statement to me (and I guess, his roommates) that put him in that house.

As it turned out, he was a serial arsonist and he'd been kicked out of the Navy for arson and suspicion of other arsons.

The fire Marshall told me the guy was "very disturbed" and he enlightened me about the psychology of arsonists in general, but what I thought was most interesting- actually, the one thing I remember- is he said that usually, females burn small things, and males burn big things. :huh:

For a "small thing", he offered the example of a woman who set the bed on fire with her husband still in it. About the husband's fate, he said "He was a crispy critter." :cry:

Edited by regi
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Years ago I had a job as a cab driver. I picked up a couple and took them to a Krogers store. I was told to wait for them, and returned them home afterward. A week later I was handed a subpoena to testify in federal court as a witness. Turns out, the girl was on federal probation, and they went in Krogers and stole a bunch of meat.

I got 45 bucks plus mileage for spending 5 minutes on the witness stand just to confirm she was the woman in my cab.

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Wow, Taun. How was the person murdered? (My goodness...I'm actually not sure why I'm curious about that. :unsure2: )

I've witnessed two police chases. One foot chase where police eventually shot the guy in the leg in a field behind my house when I was little and I remember giving a statement later to investigators that I didn't hear the officer warn the guy to stop, and a car chase- when I was in line at the drive through at a bank. That was sudden excitement. It seemed out of the blue, there were loud sirens and speeding vehicles which flew around from a main road and onto a side road (parallel to the drive through) and although it was only mere moments, it was a startling event! I sat there realizing that had anyone needed to get out of the way- no matter where they happened to be- there just wouldn't have been time. It was just too darned quick.

I once gave a statement to our fire Marshall re: the arson of a historic house across the street from where I used to live. A guy had just moved out of that house with his roommates- a couple with a baby- about a week previous, and here he was at my door at 10:00 o'clock at night. He told me he'd come back to the house to get books he'd left there and that he'd locked his keys in his car and he asked to use my phone to call one of his roommates. (I immediately smelled alcohol and I noticed that he seemed especially anxious and excited. Also, while telling his story, he motioned toward his car, and I saw that it was parked on my side of the street instead the driveway of the other house.) I didn't know him, but I recognized his car, and so I allowed him to call his roommate (I know :no: ) and he did and he left but he came back within minutes telling me that the house was on fire.

What had happened was, he'd set the fire and during his attempt to escape he found he'd locked his keys in his car! :w00t:

The newspaper reported that witnesses "saw him in the house shortly before the fire", but I knew firsthand that that wasn't true;. it was his statement to me (and I guess, his roommates) that put him in that house.

As it turned out, he was a serial arsonist and he'd been kicked out of the Navy for arson and suspicion of other arsons.

The fire Marshall told me the guy was "very disturbed" and he enlightened me about the psychology of arsonists in general, but what I thought was most interesting- actually, the one thing I remember- is he said that usually, females burn small things, and males burn big things. :huh:

For a "small thing", he offered the example of a woman who set the bed on fire with her husband still in it. About the husband's fate, he said "He was a crispy critter." :cry:

Hi regi!

It was two cooks who shared a room in the barracks.. They got arguing about a bar girl they both knew and one of them pulled a butcher knife (from the kitchen) out and proceeded to

dismember the other... Their room was right over the room I was in and blood seeped through the floor hitting me on my head... Oddly enough there was no loud screaming...

I have never seen so much blood spread out over a large area before (or since)... Everything was covered... The cook who killed the other was calmly sitting on his bunk smoking a cigarette, knife

still in hand... he looked up at me and said "She's my b**** now."...

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When I was about 9 or 10, I was riding with my brother and we saw a guy run out in the middle of the road and the van in front of us went right over him. They stopped for a moment and then took off like a shot. After we recovered from the shock of what we just saw (for the moment), we took off after the van and caught up to it and got the plates. My brother saw the actual impact but all I can remember is being horrified at seeing fluids running out of the body and me and my brother both noticing that the van had one of those stickers that were popular long ago that said "If you don't like my driving, stay off the sidewalk"...

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Hi regi!

It was two cooks who shared a room in the barracks.. They got arguing about a bar girl they both knew and one of them pulled a butcher knife (from the kitchen) out and proceeded to

dismember the other... Their room was right over the room I was in and blood seeped through the floor hitting me on my head... Oddly enough there was no loud screaming...

I have never seen so much blood spread out over a large area before (or since)... Everything was covered... The cook who killed the other was calmly sitting on his bunk smoking a cigarette, knife

still in hand... he looked up at me and said "She's my b**** now."...

Holy moly.

I was expecting you to say 'shot down' or something.

Creepy just sitting there calmly having a smoke. Chilling image in my mind.

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Holy moly.

I was expecting you to say 'shot down' or something.

Creepy just sitting there calmly having a smoke. Chilling image in my mind.

Yeah the look on his face was real spooky - like he really didn't care at all that he had just murdered his best friend... After the MP's came and hauled him away (he went with no struggle - asking one of the MP's

for another smoke) I was detailed to sit outside his cell to make sure nothing happened to him as I was on duty that weekend and I had to make an official statement anyway...

I sat on a metal folding chair just outside his bars, trying to read a book since I would be there for 12 hours... He casually walked up to the bars and asked me what I was reading and if he could

borrow the book when I was done.... I just gave it to him and moved a bit further away...

He was given a preliminary Court-Martial (sort of an arrignment hearing I guess)... and found to be sane enough for a full General Court-Martial... (For those that don't know there are basically

two types of CM's.. A Special Court-Martial, which deals with run of the mill military felonies/etc... and General CM's which can result in Capital Punishment depending on the crime...)

I never did learn what happened to him - except that the Japanese (this was in Japan) were requesting jurisdiction according to our Status of Forces Agreement - and he was moved to a Japanese

prison...

Edited by Taun
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First off - Warm welcome to UM. :)

This is terrible but thank you for sharing. I bet that was very stressful for you.

Thank you, MS. UM seems quite an interesting (diverse POVs and topics) forum.

"Very stressful": You'd win that bet. I still smell gunpowder in my nightmares. I knew the victim well. I saw everything. I still see it.

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The cook who killed the other was calmly sitting on his bunk smoking a cigarette, knife

still in hand... he looked up at me and said "She's my b**** now."...

Now, there was more to the motive than just that, though. By committing the murder, the man showed his character...a part of his character that wasn't known to others.

He didn't just murder the guy because of that bar girl. That might have been why the murder occurred when it did, but it was already part his character to murder. In fact, he might have thought about killing the guy before he actually did.

(I've been studying forensic psychology and that's some of what I've learned. ;) )

Edited by regi
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Now, there was more to the motive than just that, though. By committing the murder, the man showed his character...a part of his character that wasn't known to others.

He didn't just murder the guy because of that bar girl. That might have been why the murder occurred when it did, but it was already part his character to murder. In fact, he might have thought about killing the guy before he actually did.

(I've been studying forensic psychology and that's some of what I've learned. ;) )

There were probably racial overtones as well.. it was the mid 70's after all... (The killer was black and the victim hispanic)...

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About 10 years ago a couple of men tried to mug a woman I was walking along the street with.

There were three of us, two women and me, walking from a club to the nearby car park, on a Saturday night. None of us were drunk - at most we'd have each had one drink.

Anyway, a car drove past us and stopped. A man got out and walked back past us. He then apparently turned around and ran at us from behind, with the idea of grabbing the handbag of one of the women as we drew level to the stopped car.

The woman he attacked screamed and didn't let go of her bag. I was walking in front of the women so my first warning was the scream. I tried to grab the man but he ran into the car and they drove off empty-handed.

We called the police and gave a detailed description of the would-be mugger and the car (including rego). Seeing as the nearest cop shop was only a couple of hundred metres away we thought a police car would be on the scene - or on the path of the car - straight away. No such luck. They thanked us for the information and said they'd get in touch.

Despite the information we gave, the mugged woman wasn't interviewed by police until a few weeks later. I was never interviewed. As far as I know, no one was ever charged.

The morning after the attack there was a news report that a lone woman at an ATM had been robbed late at night by two men in a stolen car, only a few kilometres from where our little encounter happened...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_happy,_Jan!

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