I expected to meet some colorful characters when I offered my beat-up Toyota for sale on Craigslist. But the death threat took me by surprise.

"I'm about to go there and put a hole in your f...ing head," a guy named Kevin texted me. "I'm coming."

Kevin has issues, as you can tell.

But the bigger surprise came when I called the police in Montclair. I told them a psycho had threatened violence, and that he was promising to come to my apartment at 7 a.m. the next morning to prove he meant it. So, I asked, could an officer swing by in the morning, please?

The dispatcher refused, but suggested I call back the next day if the psycho made good on the threat. That might be tough, I thought, if he shoots me.

So, I asked for his supervisor, but she backed him up. "We can't stand there as a means of deterrence," she said.

Instead, she offered me another option: I could hire a "private police" officer at my own expense. If I could afford it.

There is so much wrong with all this, it's tough to know where to begin.

But the infamous case of Maria Navarro seems a good place. She was a Los Angeles woman murdered in 1989 shortly after she called police to say her estranged husband had threatened her and was on his way to her home.

"Just call us if he comes over," the dispatcher said. "We can't have a unit sit there to wait."

So, while police patrolled the roadways nearby, her husband arrived and murdered her, along with three others in the house.

"That was a watershed moment in policing," says Jon Shane, an assistant professor at John Jay School of Criminal Justice, who retired as a Newark police captain in 2005. "We've been sending police officers to houses based on threats for 30 years, so for Montclair to say they can't do it, or are not inclined to do it, is preposterous in 2018."

It can get tricky, of course. Some threats don't come with a specific time window, and police can't become someone's permanent body guard. Some threats are more credible than others. I get all that.

But let's say, in the extreme, that police get a call like mine every night over the course of a month, and just one of them turns out to be real. Isn't it still worth sending a car by as a matter of policy? Do the 109 police officers in Montclair all have more pressing business?

In fairness, I didn't tell the police that Kevin had threatened to shoot me, just that he had threatened violence. It was late, I was a little rattled, and that's my bad.

But Shane says that doesn't matter because threatening violence is a crime and should always prompt police to dig deeper, and to write up a report. Montclair's deputy police chief, Tracy Frazzano, seemed to agree.

"The threat of violence is definitely enough to draw attention," she said.

I'd like to think this kind of screw up is rare, and that I happened to be the unlucky guy who stumbled upon it. But I doubt that's the case, in Montclair or elsewhere. People get lazy, and that includes cops.

But it was the "private police" part that really shook me. It turns the stomach to think that a person threatened with violence can be told that help is available only if you're ready to pay for it. It creates two tiers of public safety, one for the rich and something less for the rest.

And the conflict of interest is glaring, since police know forcing people to pay for public safety means fellow officers will earn more money moonlighting.

So, when I heard that, I decided I was going to write this column, and ethics rules demanded that I tell them that, and identify myself as a columnist at the Star-Ledger.

That changed things. The supervising officer agreed to call Kevin and tell him to back off, and while she still refused to send a car at 7 a.m., she promised to notify the morning shift of my concern. Kevin never showed up.

But what about the people who don't have money for private security or a column in the Star-Ledger? If my experience is any guide, they are out of luck.

Again, there is nuance. When PSE&G has to rip up a roadway, moonlighting police make extra money standing guard. They moonlight at high school football games, and even sweet-sixteen parties parents want to keep a lid on.

But police ought to protect anyone who call in distress, rich or poor. That's their core mission.

Montclair Mayor Robert Jackson said he hired police to patrol his daughter's sweet-sixteen party. But he was appalled to hear my story. "The Montclair Police Department is not a private security agency," he said.

I'll say this about my beloved Montclair. Everyone I talked to for this column seemed horrified, and intent on making repairs. Police are conducting an internal investigation, and both the mayor and Councilman Bill Hurlock said the council will review policy on private policing as well.

"It seems problematic," said Hurlock. "I'm going to look into it."

As for myself, I'll sell my next car through a dealer. Rage is in style in America, and with so many guns out there, I'll settle for a lower price.

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Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.