As James Roe neared Oregon Park in Northeast Portland, he was startled by what he saw.

The 36-year-old was out last Thursday afternoon looking for his 1994 F350 pickup truck, which had been stolen days before. Now he was witnessing two men who appeared to be breaking into a black Ford Mustang parked off Northeast 29th Avenue with a lock-picking tool.

“Surreal is almost the way I’d describe it,” Roe recalled in a recent interview. “I suppose it speaks to what an endemic problem car theft is here.”

Roe considered rolling down his window to confront the suspicious men huddled around the Mustang, but he decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

So he called 911 to report a possible crime in progress.

“I thought I was doing the right thing to prevent this car from being stolen,” Roe recalled.

He sat back and waited for police to arrive.

And waited.

Then waited some more.

No police.

After about 20 minutes, Roe said, the men finally popped the Mustang’s door open. One got in, started the engine and drove off.

Roe decided to follow the man, who made his way west toward downtown.

During the tail, he snapped photos of the Mustang, its license plate and the man behind the wheel.

Again he called 911 to report that the black car was now heading toward the Burnside Bridge.

Before Roe could finish with the details, the dispatcher interrupted him.

“The officers have reviewed the information,” the dispatcher told Roe, according an audio copy of the call. “I don’t know if they’re going to do a whole lot more with it, to be honest.”

With that, Roe put an end to the pursuit.

“The whole thing was just baffling to me,” the Southeast Portland resident said.

“I know the police in Portland are short-staffed, but this was simply put in their lap. It makes me concerned about whether they actually prioritize car theft in any meaningful way.”

Dispatch records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive show that a Portland police officer eventually responded to Roe’s reported theft in progress — 41 minutes after he made his first call to 911.

Officer Nola Watts, a Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman, said Thursday that she could not speculate why it took police almost an hour to show up, adding that a crime may have never occurred. No Mustang with the license plate photographed by Roe has been reported stolen.

“A suspicious circumstance was reported of someone using a slim jim to get into a vehicle,” Watts said.

“This is not necessarily a crime, as indicated by the fact that there has never been a reported stolen on this vehicle. Therefore, there was no crime in progress.”

A photo of James Roe's 1994 F350, which was stolen last week in Southeast Portland. (Courtesy of James Roe)

Additionally, Dan Douthit, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, said the dispatcher should not have led Roe to believe police would not use the additional information he provided.

“The call taker was not in a position to speak on behalf of PPB and should not have made this comment,” Douthit said.

Last year, Portland police logged nearly 6,400 stolen cars, or almost 18 a day, records show. Only Albuquerque and Oakland had more car thefts per capita, according to FBI statistics.

Watts dismissed concerns that the long response time was because of a staffing shortage at the bureau, which has more than 100 vacancies.

“This case does not appear to have any connection to our staffing challenges,” she said.

“Rather, it appears as if there was a difference in what the caller perceived was happening and what actually was happening.”

Roe’s response?

“Even if it wasn’t a crime, it would have taken them two minutes to ascertain that,” he said. “That they’re trying to justify their slow response after the fact – I just find that ridiculous.”

As for his stolen truck? It’s still missing 10 days later.

“If it ever turns up, it will likely be because of help from a member of the public,” Roe said, “not the Portland police.”

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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