The Ithaca Police Department had their hands full this weekend with all of the Cortaca parties happening around Ithaca. The log from this past weekend lists 11 complaints of loud parties. In two separate occasions nine people were arrested, four at one location, five at another.
Over the weekend of November 13-15, among the random larceny reports and indecent exposures, is a report of a fraudulent $100 bill found at the library at Cornell University. The Cornell Daily Crime Log reports that an investigation is pending.
I find this disturbing. Most of the crime in the college crime logs are relatively harmless. A report of potential counterfeiting suggests a student may be experimenting with fake money. If this money enters circulation, let’s say in the commons, it’s impossible to say who may end up with it and eventually get caught. The crime of one student may lead to a long line of students and community members getting in trouble with the law.
The bill may have surfaced at the library because the counterfeiter wanted to see if anyone could tell the difference between the real and faulty bills. There may be more bills floating around that have yet to be uncovered.
I hope that the Cornell Police do launch a full investigation and stop this before it even starts. Hopefully it isn’t too late, and this is only the first of many different bills. If that is the case, be aware of where your money comes from. Make sure you aren’t holding counterfeit bills, or else you could have a serious problem.
On November 11th around 12:43 AM, someone received a warning for doing their laundry after hours.
I don’t know the specifics, but who gets in trouble for doing laundry? Since when was cleanliness grounds for getting in trouble? I imagine that it was a college student trying to do their laundry after hours at a local laundromat. But then how did they get in? If they broke in, I would assume the police would have figured that out and dealt with them more harshly than just issuing a warning.
I also wonder, if it wasn’t at a laundromat, what classifies as after hours for washing laundry? Is this some obscure Ithaca law that I’m not aware of? Just think, what if everyone tried to do their laundry after midnight. Oh man, the horror! The rumbling sound would be so loud, the city would crumble.
In conclusion, getting in trouble for doing laundry is ridiculous. No one should be receiving warnings based only on the fact they are doing laundry late at night.
You know that sketchy vehicle at McDonalds? Yeah, that one. Man. That thing creeps me out. It’s there every day I drive past. I wonder if someone just ditched it there or something. Seriously, that thing is a piece of junk. Maybe it’s a car bomb waiting to explode. Maybe it belongs to some pedophile who preys on kids that like McDonalds. You know what, I’m going to call the police. I’d hate to the person who didn’t do something about this.
Turns out that mysterious car belonged to an employee. The entire first paragraph was, by the way, fictional. I have no idea what actually went through that person’s mind before they reported the car. I find it funny that an employee’s car can become “suspicious.” Of course the car will be parked there every day if the owner works there. And if the car is in poor condition, the owner works at McDonalds.
I do appreciate the forward thinking done, just in case the car had contained something illegal, such as a bomb or convict on the run. I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I believe I have found my favorite Police Incident EVER. On October 30 around 7:30pm an officer was dispatched to the corner of Clinton St and Plain St to “check on the welfare of an intoxicated subject carrying a cake.” Now, if this person was wandering around my street, and if they didn’t seem like the psychopathic killer type, I would certainly invite them in to share the cake and provide them with some coffee rather than call the cops. Cake is the universal peace-maker.
The log doesn’t stop there though, the Ithaca Police obviously side with me on this matter because it goes on to say: “officer was unable to locate any problems.” As per usual, it is impossible to know whether this means that the officer could not locate the drunken cake-carrier or if the police have no problems with a seemingly drunk person walking around with a cake. I prefer to think that latter.
There is, as always, a lesson in this kids: if you are stumbling around Ithaca on a Friday night, just carry a cake and you won’t get arrested.
At around 10pm on Thursday Oct 29, the Ithaca Police reported an incident with a description that simply reads:
“Arrows logged into property for safe keeping.”
The incident, which was reported on the corner of Tioga St and Seneca St, was obviously a covert mission headed by the Sheriff of Nottingham to raid Robin Hood’s supplies. The Ithaca Police are corrupt, we must help Robin by all means necessary.
In all seriousness though (since I was kidding in that last statement), I really hope this was a college student running around in a Robin Hood costume with real arrows strapped into his synthetic poly-mesh quiver that was caught and forced to hand his very real weapons over.
Unfortunately, the report does not go into more detail so all I can do is speculate. Any theories?
The Ithaca Police crime log for October 30th includes a report of unwanted text messages. That’s right, unwanted texts.
I don’t understand what there is to investigate there. My guess is, the person texting is masking their number and sending inappropriate things. So how do the Ithaca Police investigate this? Do they have the technology to track down masked phone numbers? It seems unlikely to me. Even then, is it illegal to text people? The report is filed under harassment, but I wonder if that’s how a court of law would see it.
I also wonder why you would report that to the police. Aren’t there other ways to handle things like that? I feel like your service provider could potentially block the number or trace it or something like that. Is it something the police should be dealing with? It seems like something that could be handled by the individual with more ease than the police.
If things like this happen on a regular basis, it won’t be long until the government starts to look for ways to regulate texts and the free speech offered there to prevent hate crime. I think it’s a dangerous topic to dive into, and I hope people realize what involving the police could mean for the future of texting. I’d much rather not have my texts read and censored by a machine.
October 22nd sure had a lot of strange incidents. The Ithaca police found a car that had rolled backwards, dealt with keys being stolen from a running car and a stuffed animal hanging from a tree.
But the incident I found most amusing was a report of simple ding dong ditch. Since when did the police deal with kids ringing doorbells? Now, it did happen close to 1 AM, and I too would be angry if someone was ringing my doorbell at that hour, but is it really necessary? The report says that the “subject was not located.” Of course not. It’s ding dong ditch. The idea is to ring the doorbell and run away and hide.
Just another day for the Ithaca police I guess. If you’re the one ringing doorbells in the middle of the night, please stop. I doubt you’d want someone to do it to you.
We here at IthaCrime are proud to announce that the Ithacan Incident Logs are back!
Yes, they’ve even got a fancy advert (right beneath the incident log in fact) announcing the return. “Remember that time…we didn’t have the Public Safety Log for two weeks? It’s back!”
And one of the best parts of the Incident Log is recognizing crimes that your friends have committed so you can point at them for years to come and say “Hey remember that time you were in the Ithacan’s Public Safety Log for (insert crime here)!”
Since the log from this week reported incidents between September 10 and 13, a friend of mine was actually in there. Unlawful Possession of Marijuana. This friend of mine actually took a picture of his incident log report and sent it to his parents and his brother. I’m sure we’re all going to remember this for years to come, especially since there is now photographic proof.
Well, I for one am glad to welcome back the Ithacan’s incident logs.
