he`s a familiar local to many and chats to random strangers on the bus all the time, lovely man, well liked and vulnerable.

i saw him on the bus the day before he was last seen trying to strike up a conversation with a couple on the bus who were none too happy about it, something about their affect was off, i wonder if it is worth mentioning it to the police?

it`s been bothering me for a couple of days.

Hi D,

Yes you should tell them asap. What are you waiting for? Are you scared the police will tell you off for wasting their time, believe me they won't, they'll be grateful, and will thank you. It might be nothing but then again you might be saving his life. Too few people care enough these days to make the call, don't be one of them.

it was the morning on the day before he went missing, he was seen at home the next evening and it was only brief, you`re right, i`ll email them now.

it`s not not caring, it`s that i wasn`t sure it would be useful or relevant with it being a day and a half earlier.

edit: argh. i can`t find a suitable alternative to 101 and i dob`t have a phone.

edit again: facebook!

Sorry D I know you care, I was just in a rush to reply and I always have trouble finding the right words when I'm writing. My brain thinks faster than I can type so by the time some of the sentence is on the page I've forgotten the rest of it and it comes out wrong.

yes, don't delay, you must report your hunch , it may seem unimportant, but it could be a good lead.

i just facebooked the local police, i do feel really bad for not getting in touch immediately.

it`s ok c, i get it , i do the same.

There isnt an alternative to 101, that is the non-emergency number, so just ring that.

i don`t have a phone, i needed to contact them digitally.

You dont have a phone?!?!

Either way they will probably still want to speak to you about it on the phone rather than via Facebook. Can you not ring them from work?

that`s correct, i don`t have a phone, nor do i have access to one without taking a couple of bus journeys.

if i ever fall ambulance-ill at home i hope it`s not 3am because i would be summoning it by facebook status .

I'd strongly suggest buying a cheap pay as you go phone and sticking a tenner on it in case of emergencies like that

Good morning D,

I've just remembered that you can report non-emergency crimes or incidents to your local force online, as an alternative to Facebook. Here's a list of all the English ones: https://www.police.uk/contact/force-websites/ and looking at several of them what you do is look for Contact Us (which should be near the top of the force's home page) and click that.

This will take you to a new page where there will be several boxes of options and one will be 'Report something'. Oh hang on, the Nottinghamshire Police's site doesn't give any options to complete an online form, but I've found out something from their site I didn't know before (I double checked on Google). It costs 15p to call 101.

I've been calling Merseyside Police on the local area number instead of 101 so that's saved me a few bob to be sure.

thank you c, i did look on my local force`s site because i`ve reported a crime that way before but it seems that you can`t any more, they`ve not read the facebook message either so i don`t know how often that is checked .

a charge to report a crime is fcuking criminal, i am genuinely outraged by that.

Where on earth do you live?

Village shop/pub with a phone you can use if you explain the situation? Neighbour?

i know, i should but then i`ll end up having to use it at some point and it`ll evolve into texts and phone calls i don`t want.

i have actually got a perfectly good phone [with credit still] down the back of the sofa that i can`t reach, it`s been there a year or two and if the damp hasn`t killed it there`s nowt wrong with it but i really do prefer not having it.

i don`t know my neighbours, the two above and diagonal have moved and the top flat is an unpleasant and violent pig. i`m a social pariah where i live and there are no public coin phones till town, they`re all libraries and ruddy "art" galleries.

i used to use the one in the health centre but they took that out quite a while ago so you`re buggered if you want to call a taxi from there unless you want the entire waiting room to know where you live because the receptionist, nice as she is has a voice she could summon a cab with from miles away without the aid of a device.

edit: sorry, rambling.

Why dont you send your details to someone here that you trust and get them to report it for you?

Failing that, I am out of options. How are you posting on here if your dont have any kind of telephone device? Mobile wifi dongle I assume?

in over a decade and a half online i`ve never had to have a phone to get the internet.

i`ll message someone on facebook to ring the police station and tell them to look at their facebook i suppose, third party communicating the entire story would be messy.

How do you do it then? Im geruinely interested.

Didnt think the mobile wifi things had been around that long.

i`ve had, variously and on and off, cable, a dongle and currently mifi.

i`ve never had a property with a bt phone line so i`ve never bothered with any of the others.

Just checked on Google and several of the regional forces say not to report crimes/incidents on Facebook as it's not monitored 24/7. That might be code for 'we don't bother with Facebook you're wasting your time'.

What you could do is either report what you saw online via a neighbouring force's site or (this is just my idea not from Google) go to your local BBC radio website, find Contact Us and send an email to the newsroom. I'm sure they'll forward it to the police.

in the finish i got sick of looking for an appropriate email and just sent to the general enquiries with a note to ask them to pass it to the relevant people, i would have done that in the first place but i`ve not slept for a couple of days and my head is racing like a whippet so i`m a bit fluffy-headed.

you`d think they`d be looking to make it easier to contact them, not more difficult.

they update the page regularly.

With all due respect, the vast vast majority of people in this country fit into at least one of the following categories:

a) own a mobile phone
b) live with someone who owns a mobile phone
c) is a friend with someone who owns a mobile phone
d) has a landline
e) knows someone who has a landline
f) works at a place that has a landline
g) lives near a pay phone or a public building with a phone

I dunno how easy you want it to be, tbh. You cant expect them to cater for every single scenario.

not everyone has a phone, and if they do, not everyone always has credit, i`m guessing you havn`t tried to find a phone box that is still in service and takes coins for a few years because we lost the last one here a good 6 or 7 years since and they`ve been dropping like flies all over for a good decade.

some people are unable to speak intelligibly due to illness or accident, how are they to be expected to use the phone?

there are LOTS of people who live in some kind of isolation also, in this day and age i don`t think it is too much to ask to have a digital contact for reporting crime, we`ve had the internet long enough and it`s not some rarely used specialist method of communication is it.

i could report crime online to my local police force last year and i cannot this, that is a step in reverse.

Quite clearly the police want crime to be reported verbally so they can be instantly dealt with.

As for those who cannot speak, TypeTalk exists and has done for many many years.

As for your assertion that LOTS of people live in isolation, that may be the case, I am sure the vast majority of them fall into at least one of the seven categories I listed.

More power to your elbow for choosing the way you want to live your life, you just have to put up with the downsides of it, of which this is clearly one of them.

Has anyone mentioned Crimestoppers yet?

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-in...mation-online/

OK, its not a "crime" but they will still pass it on to the relevant force.