Stolen phone was an easy case, but Glendale police dropped ball
You know what’s as refreshing as it is rare? When someone takes responsibility for messing up and immediately sets out to make it right.
The someone I’m talking about here is the Glendale Police Department, which somehow lost track of a routine theft case involving a stolen cellphone back in May of last year.
“The bottom line is that the ball was dropped on our end the way it was handled. We’re taking the steps necessary to clear up this case and take appropriate action,” Capt. Rhett Fugman told me after looking into what happened.
By that he means they would go after the suspect and seek criminal charges, even this long after the fact. The 19year-old man was arrested Monday for misdemeanor theft and released on $200 cash bail.
But as this week went on, it became clear that no charges would be issued. More on that in a minute.
Chris Golden, now 18, walked into the Glendale Police Department on May 28, 2018, just before 10:30 in the morning. He reported that he had met another young man in a parking lot on Green Bay Avenue a half-hour earlier in the hope of getting some money owed to him. They had connected earlier on social media and set up the meeting.
The man he met asked to use his iPhone 7 Plus for a moment because his own phone had died.
“He drove off the second I gave it to him,” Chris told me.
The next day, Chris picked the culprit from a photo lineup. And he provided the name of the guy, who lived right there in Glendale.
What happened next was ... nothing. “I remember the officer saying, ah, the phone’s probably gone. I’m like, really? In that couple of hours?” said Emily Golden, Chris’ mom, who tried for weeks to get the case moving. They hadn’t even finished paying off the stolen phone, plus they faced the added expense of buying Chris a new phone.
The officer, who works at night, stopped returning her calls. He was assigned the case because he had stayed longer on overtime the morning Chris came in.
“It was not anything done intentionally. It just slipped through the cracks on his follow-up,” Fugman said. “It can
happen, but it shouldn’t happen. We’re taking ownership of it.”
The Golden family lives in Mequon. I called them last month after a family friend heard the story and told me about it.
Chris did not initially tell police that the money he was owed was connected to a marijuana purchase he tried to make. But he clarified that detail when he was reinterviewed by an officer this week.
This omission was of great concern to a prosecutor from the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, who reviewed the case this week and decided against issuing charges. You can’t have your crime victim appearing to be less than completely truthful. Glendale’s city attorney also took a pass on a municipal citation.
This case left Chris’ mom wondering if a $1,000 cellphone was considered too minor to bother the police. She knows there are murders and other more serious cases to solve.
“But it mattered to me and it mattered to my son. It’s still wrong. It’s still breaking the law,” Emily said. “I don’t think this is the way most people believe that the police department should handle things.”
People should report any crime, said Fugman.
“I’m all about people calling the police for minor things. We do have people tell us, ‘I didn’t want to bother you.’ But this is what we get paid for. Little things can actually be big things. Let us determine the validity of something,” Fugman said.
His advice in situations like this: Ask to speak to a police department supervisor. That should get the case moving again.
Chris said he felt stupid and naive after giving his phone to a stranger in a parking lot. He also said he’s no longer into weed.
Emily said her son learned a lesson.
“I don’t want him to be cynical and distrustful,” she said. “Yet, I don’t want him walking up to some guy in his car and handing him his phone.”
“I’m all about people calling the police for minor things. We do have people tell us, ‘I didn’t want to bother you.’ But this is what we get paid for. Little things can actually be big things. Let us determine the validity of something.” Capt. Rhett Fugman Glendale Police Department