CRIME

Last Sept. 25, a person I know kicked in the back door of my home and robbed my wife and I of over $14,000 worth of property. Three days later, he forged my name on a check he stole and cashed it at his bank for $950. Despite confessing to the investigating sheriff’s deputy he cashed the check, now almost a year later, he remains unarrested and uncharged. My wife and I have been in constant contact with the sheriff’s office and the prosecutor’s office with no positive result.

We have been reporting him to the sheriff’s office for methamphetamine sales, theft of gasoline, theft of aluminum irrigation pipe, threatening my wife and I with firearms, and all while in progress. The sheriff’s office had no interest. My wife made appointments with Undersheriff Turley to come discuss the situation on three separate occasions, he did not keep any of the appointments, and told my wife that he would be “too busy” to talk with us. When I received an e-mail from our Prosecuting Attorney Angus Lee concerning his “New Bad Check Enforcement Program,” I e-mailed him the suggestion that our case would be an excellent place to start. I followed up with another e-mail two months later. I received no reply to either.

We have heard the same thing from every Grant County official we have talked to, “there is not much we can do about it,” by which they mean, “I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Talking with other Grant County crime victims elicits similar stories and anger. Anger not just at the criminals, but also at those we employ to protect us from crime, who think their job is to give mothers tickets for having their 12-year-olds in the wrong style of car seat.

Robert S. Hayes

Moses Lake