Yep, definitely little people...

Just had another of those "if you're not cop" moments.

Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Normally, I don't comment on active files but this one deserves a mention.

It all started with a car that was stolen just after Christmas...

However, the story goes back to around August last year when Mr Moody (not his real name), a gentleman in his 60s, meets a young woman under very odd circumstances. And let's just say, for sake of clarity, that Mr Moody is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He seems a genuine but naive, if not developmentally-challenged, individual.

Now on this particular evening, Mr Moody was in is car, waiting for a friend who was getting cash from an ATM outside a 24-hour bakery. A white van arrives and a young female exits, enters the shop and a short while later leaves. She smiles at Mr Moody and gets into the back of his car.

Mr Moody asks Mystery Girl what she is doing and she replies that the 2 men in the van tried to strangle her. She wants him to drive her away from the immediate vicinity, which he does.

Next she asks him to take her to an address where she has some clothes to pick up. Again, without asking any questions, he does so. She exits the vehicle, walks behind a fence, and shortly afterwards reappears with several plastic bags of clothing.

Mr Moody asks where she is staying and she says that she has nowhere to go...

He offers to let Mystery Girl stay at his place on his couch for a few days until she sorts herself out. Now while alarm bells would probably be ringing at this stage for you or I, Mr Moody takes people at face value and is predisposed to help people in need.

So Mystery Girl accepts his offer and for the next three days Mr Moody is driving her from one place to another - be it to visit her father or a girlfriend etc. The girl has promised to pay Moody a small sum ($60.00) for putting her up and running her around.

On Day 3, however, Mystery Girl is gone. No money paid to Mr Moody.

He puts it out of his mind and thinks no more about it until a couple days after Christmas, Mystery Girl walks into his house without so much as a knock on the door.

"I owe you some money" Mystery Girl says.

"Yes," replies Mr Moody.

"Do you have $40.00?" she asks.

"No" he says.

She directs him to take her down the road to where the prostitutes tout their wares. She disappears into a dark van and returns about 20 minutes later, asking to go back to Moody's. Once there, Mystery Girl offers to pay Moody in 'kind' rather than cash and he accepts. She instructs him to go into his room and wait while she freshens up.

He does.

After waiting 20 minutes, Mr Moody wonders what's happening and gets up.

Not only is Mystery Girl gone but so is his car!

This is where I come in, as the investigator appointed by the Insurer. I've interviewed Moody, identified several addresses of interest, made area enquiries and have established a number of leads:

• Description of POI (Person of Interest) - she is quite distinctive and unlikely to be mistaken for someone else
• Several names she is known to use (from an informant)
• Identified the area she is known to 'work' from
• Located and interviewed several other witnesses who have seen Mystery Girl at Address of Interest over past few days, latest sighting earlier in morning (getting out of white van...)
• Identified another possible victim (elderly gentleman in 70s) that Mystery Girl and another known prostitute were fleecing
• Learned that Mystery Girl has a serious drug habit and also deals
• Mystery Girl owes a number of people serious cash for her drugs and is trying to avoiding them
• Located another witness who saw Mystery Girl this very evening, getting out of a white van - and have CCTV footage

What I don't know is her actual name or where she is currently living.

Now, it's probably pertinent to point out that in the past 17 days since this was reported to the Police, no-one has yet interviewed Mr Moody. I am the only person who really has a lead on the suspect.

Right, so with that in mind, knowing that Mystery Girl is out and about (last sighting was less than an hour earlier), I contact the Police stating that I am the investigator assigned by the Insurance Company and that I have a particular suspect and I believe she is out 'working' this very night.

What I want to know is if I locate her current whereabouts tonight, will the Police at least make an appearance and get her details since so that she can be positively identified and questioned at a later time?

Short answer: no. Nor were they particularly interested in getting any details from me regarding the suspect (for that is what she is) just in case.

At what point are they going to do their fucking jobs?

I mean, there's been a complaint, and there is a suspect...

I've sent off an email to someone in Criminal Intelligence and hope they will be more inclined to an information sharing agreement - at least by providing the known details of Mystery Girl as she will most certainly be known to them.

I guess, on the positive side, I wasn't threatened with being arrested, unlike Thomas H. Humphries who details his experience when successfully tracking down a thief.

Crazy!