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Part One]
[
Part Two]
Houston, Texas: I had over $2000 worth of stuff
stolen from my car.
Gate City, Idaho:: I had a $70 coat stolen with a checkbook inside. A $60 check was forged.
Houston, Texas: When I called the police to file a report, the call handler all but asked "Why?"
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective seemed personally offended that I did not report the stolen coat.
Houston, Texas: The patrolman took two hours to show up.
Gate City, Idaho:: A full-fledged Detective, after-hours, was able to help me within five minutes.
Houston, Texas: The cop filled out the report within 5 minutes. I offered to give him the serial number of the computer stolen, but he declined.
Gate City, Idaho:: I was interviewed for 45 minutes. He practically asked my life story.
Houston, Texas: The cop was visibly irritated.
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective was apologetic that they would probably never catch the person that did it.
Houston, Texas: "Chump." -cop (okay, he didn't say it, but he was thinking it loudly).
Gate City, Idaho:: "It must be awful to know that someone out there stole your identity. I promise that I will do everything I can to catch this person, and you'll probably get the money back, but I'm afraid we probably won't catch the bastard." -GCPD Detective
Houston, Texas: As the cop drove away, I doubt he ever thought of me again.
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective has called me twice so far. The first to ask for some more information and the second to give me an update on the investigation. He was working on getting authorization to view my former employer's security tapes and left a message for the pizza outlet's owner to find out if the pizza was delivered and to recommend that in the future they don't take out of state checks without ID.
And here is the flip side of the credit bureau, the small-town atmosphere of yesteryear. Having made the same transition from big city to small town, I have a hard time understanding why so many people do the opposite.
The reason for many is simple: In the age of specialization, cities are where the jobs are. Jobs are there cause companies are there and companies are there cause airports are there and, circularly, potential employees are there.
There is only a couple major employers of professionals in Gate City. I find it interesting that up here the government jobs (at any level) are the lucrative ones out here.
Comment spam is an ongoing problems that we're trying to address. Previously we required people to create accounts and log in. I am thankful to say that is no longer the case. We're giving Captcha another try and are playing around with a text-based Q&A variant of Captcha. So bear with us as we try to figure out how to best get a handle ont he problem. Please note that any comment on a post more than 30 days old will go into the moderation queue, where I will get to it when I can which could be once a week.
