Robbery - Burglary - Theft - Breach of Trust

One of my high-and-mighty pet peeves as a new dispatcher was the mislabeling of crimes. Armed with new knowledge of the difference between a robbery and burglary, I briefly succumbed to the temptation of demonstrating my superior intellect to the minions that dared call me with inappropriately labeled complaints.

“I’ve been robbed!” was a frequent complaint.

Robbery, it turns out, has to be something stolen from a person by force or threat of force. It is most often accompanied by a weapon – except in the case of Chuck Norris in which he is the weapon.

In order to quickly sift through this error, I discovered that if I asked the person what weapon was used, it immediately lead to the quick discovery of what the complaint actually was.

“There wasn’t a weapon. I loaned my car to a friend three weeks ago, and now he won’t give it back.”

That went all the way from a felony crime to a civil breach of trust.

This technique served me very well for months until I took a call from a fabric store.

“We’ve been robbed!” came the panicked plea for help.

Calmly and condescendingly I replied, “What kind of weapon was used?”

“A gun!” she gasped.

At this point I was stumped. Apparently she didn’t know how this game worked. I would ask about the weapon, and she would in turn tell me that something happened that really wasn’t a big deal. An armed robbery with a gun is a really big deal!

I decided right then that it made more sense to pursue the worst-case scenario rather than assume everything was no big deal.