[ANON POST] Police Procedure and Legality Questions (Texas)
Story type: Alternate reality, fantasy story
Place: San Antonio, Texas
Time: April-May, 2008
Hello!
I am a non-American, and I need some help with how the cops work in the USA -- basically, how legal stuff goes down, both with cops and with hospitals. I hope I'm clear enough with my questions, but if I'm not, please let me know! And, the... events might seem ridiculous -- but it's supposed to be that way, according to the world this takes place in.
The scenario: In San Antonio, Texas, there's a string of murders. The victims are buried alive in a cemetery, and the murders are creating quite the racket (they would, wouldn't they?) And then the MC, X, is kidnapped and buried alive. Except, someone manages to smell a rat and call 911, and he is rescued before he can die.
The only identity the authorities manage to find on him is his name on the credit card he's using, which is fake. He also has his phone when he's found, and they all refer to him by the name on his credit card. The phone has stopped functioning. Another thing he has is some stationery from the hotel he was staying at.
Lo and behold, cerebral hypoxia be forgotten, X makes a miraculous, mysterious recovery -- he wakes up, fully conscious, in a few hours. Except for one small point: he has amnesia. Everyone is surprised he's awake, and he is questioned about his kidnapping -- about whether he remembers being kidnapped, his attacker, yadda yadda, but of course he doesn't.
Later that evening, X escapes the hospital.
Now, to enable this, I did conduct some searches. I looked up the following terms on Google:
FBI
Fake Credit Cards
Hospital Insurance
SAPD
Honestly? I am very confused. Mostly because I don't belong to the country, I can't figure out how to look for what I want, and would really, really love some information from someone who has knowledge about this. Where I come from, we also don't have a system of insurance in hospitals. I'm a doctor myself but the hospital I work in is extremely affordable, most treatment being government sponsored, and people prefer to pay cash for whatever remains. So I really have no clue, and help would be wonderful.
My concerns are:
1. Would the police use the stationery to go investigate the hotel that he was staying at, once they're done looking in the graveyard? How long to look in the graveyard anyway? If they do investigate it and X is awake before they go to look at the hotel, would they ask for his permission to search his room? Is X allowed to say no to searching his room?
2. Once the cops get to the hotel, would they need a warrant to search the room, once they've interviewed the receptionist, etc?
3. If they need a warrant, how soon can they get one?
4. X has a car that's parked outside the hotel. Would they search that too?
5. How would the hospital be receiving the money? Would they ask for insurance the moment X is awake? If it helps, he really doesn't remember if he has insurance.
6. Would the police keep his phone with them or would they give it back to X once he's awake?
7. Would the FBI be involved?
8. If they get a warrant to the room, what degree of ransacking would they do? There's a laptop in there. Would they bag it as evidence? What if they find weapons?
Phew. Well, that's all I can think of. Sorry. I'm really confused about legal things. Also, I should probably mention that as an endgame, as far as possible, I want X to be able to recover his car and his weapons and the laptop and the clothes. I am prepared to find any loophole, just so I can swing that.
Thank you so very much!
Place: San Antonio, Texas
Time: April-May, 2008
Hello!
I am a non-American, and I need some help with how the cops work in the USA -- basically, how legal stuff goes down, both with cops and with hospitals. I hope I'm clear enough with my questions, but if I'm not, please let me know! And, the... events might seem ridiculous -- but it's supposed to be that way, according to the world this takes place in.
The scenario: In San Antonio, Texas, there's a string of murders. The victims are buried alive in a cemetery, and the murders are creating quite the racket (they would, wouldn't they?) And then the MC, X, is kidnapped and buried alive. Except, someone manages to smell a rat and call 911, and he is rescued before he can die.
The only identity the authorities manage to find on him is his name on the credit card he's using, which is fake. He also has his phone when he's found, and they all refer to him by the name on his credit card. The phone has stopped functioning. Another thing he has is some stationery from the hotel he was staying at.
Lo and behold, cerebral hypoxia be forgotten, X makes a miraculous, mysterious recovery -- he wakes up, fully conscious, in a few hours. Except for one small point: he has amnesia. Everyone is surprised he's awake, and he is questioned about his kidnapping -- about whether he remembers being kidnapped, his attacker, yadda yadda, but of course he doesn't.
Later that evening, X escapes the hospital.
Now, to enable this, I did conduct some searches. I looked up the following terms on Google:
FBI
Fake Credit Cards
Hospital Insurance
SAPD
Honestly? I am very confused. Mostly because I don't belong to the country, I can't figure out how to look for what I want, and would really, really love some information from someone who has knowledge about this. Where I come from, we also don't have a system of insurance in hospitals. I'm a doctor myself but the hospital I work in is extremely affordable, most treatment being government sponsored, and people prefer to pay cash for whatever remains. So I really have no clue, and help would be wonderful.
My concerns are:
1. Would the police use the stationery to go investigate the hotel that he was staying at, once they're done looking in the graveyard? How long to look in the graveyard anyway? If they do investigate it and X is awake before they go to look at the hotel, would they ask for his permission to search his room? Is X allowed to say no to searching his room?
2. Once the cops get to the hotel, would they need a warrant to search the room, once they've interviewed the receptionist, etc?
3. If they need a warrant, how soon can they get one?
4. X has a car that's parked outside the hotel. Would they search that too?
5. How would the hospital be receiving the money? Would they ask for insurance the moment X is awake? If it helps, he really doesn't remember if he has insurance.
6. Would the police keep his phone with them or would they give it back to X once he's awake?
7. Would the FBI be involved?
8. If they get a warrant to the room, what degree of ransacking would they do? There's a laptop in there. Would they bag it as evidence? What if they find weapons?
Phew. Well, that's all I can think of. Sorry. I'm really confused about legal things. Also, I should probably mention that as an endgame, as far as possible, I want X to be able to recover his car and his weapons and the laptop and the clothes. I am prepared to find any loophole, just so I can swing that.
Thank you so very much!