My dad (79) goes hiking in state forests and prefers not wearing clothes. I don’t get it, but I know it’s not all that uncommon; some people just hate clothes.
About a month ago, he came across a game camera strapped to a tree. Feeling embarrassed, he erased the memory and then, in a stunning display of poor judgment, took the camera home.
When I examined the camera, I thought y’know what, there’s a reasonably good chance this is trackable; he should probably put this back or turn it in. Unfortunately, I didn’t act on this suspicion.
Sure enough, state police showed up yesterday with a search warrant. We turned over the camera, and the cop said, “Okay, so this all started about 8 weeks ago. We got a complaint about a nude party walking in the woods. And you can’t be doing that; it’s public property.” My dad indicated that he understood and it wouldn’t happen again. The cop then said, “And then this camera disappears, and we tracked it to here. We do have your photo on the camera… so do you want to tell me what all this is about?”
I piped up and said, “You probably shouldn’t answer any questions,” and the cop said, “Okay, no problem; you don’t have to, so you’ll be getting some paperwork in the mail,” and they left.
My thinking is when the police report that he wouldn’t answer questions, that may make it more likely that the DA or state’s attorney decides to go ahead and charge him, whereas this may have been one of those situations where if he’d just said, “Yeah, that was really stupid, I’m really sorry, I was just embarrassed and f’d up,” a lot of prosecutors would be less interested in pursuing the case against a 79-year-old retiree who’s never even had a speeding ticket.
So if I’m correct, now he’ll need representation. Did I cost my dad a shit ton of money?