Mystery robbery

Mystery robbery

It was early August. Corky, a detective, was sitting at home. His kids had begun their first day of school, and he was back from taking them there. As he wondered what to do, the phone rang loudly. Corky answered it. “Hello”? “Hello, this is Burke, Manager of Bridgeport Supermarket. We’ve been robbed!”

“What happened?” asked Corky. “Well, this morning I came in to work, and saw the door cracked. Inside, there was a complete mess on the floor, with empty cash registers spread around, and a broken window, with a lot missing!” “Got it, we’ll be down soon”, said Corky. “I’m calling Jeanne for this one, it’s gonna be fun”, he thought. He placed the call. “Jeanne? We got a detective case at Bridgeport Hardware. See you there”, and hung up.

Jeanne was his partner in detective work. They had been working together on cases for around 2 years – she was his wife’s sister. When they met there, the store manager was there waiting. “Glad y’all came so fast!” he said. “We’ve been having to turn some customers away due to this.” “Let’s go have a look”, Corky said, with some excitement.

They walked in. The first thing Jeanne noticed was that several cash registers were opened up and mostly empty except some coins. Nearby, there was a sledgehammer.

“I can’t figure out why the alarm system didn’t trip. I realize they came thru that broken window so it wouldn’t affect the door sensor, but they should have still tripped the Motion Sensor”, said Burke. “Burke, do you have the keys for these cash registers?” asked Jeanne. “Yes, I’ll grab them.”

Meanwhile, Corky was checking for fingerprints on the sledgehammer. “Jeanne, take a look at this”, he said. “It looks like there are two sets of fingerprints on here, and most of them are at least a few days old, they’re not fresh from last night. The others are though”. Jeanne looked further. “You’re right”, she said. “It could mean that someone else was using it then, or it was stolen a few days ago or…”

Burke returned with the keys. “Burke, set those there for a moment, alright? Cm’ere for a minute.” Burke came over. “Show your fingers”, Corky said. Burke showed them. After a close look, Jeanne whispered, “Corky, his fingerprints perfectly match the ones on that sledge.” Corky nodded. “Burke, have you seen this sledge before?”

“Uhh… now that you mention it, That’s actually my sledge! I brought it to work just a few days ago so we break up some bags of ice with it, and ended up keeping it here since we’ll need it more soon. We haven’t gotten a new one yet”. “And where did you keep it?” “Why… in the storage shed right outside here.” “Could you take us to that shed?” “Sure.”

They headed outside to the shed. “It looks like the door is still open… and the lock doesn’t look hurt or broken at all”, Corky said. “Hm… Thinking thru it, I don’t think our workers always lock that shed. They may have left it unlocked”.

“But it’s really coincidential that they knew that shed would have a sledge in it, and that it wouldn’t be locked”, Corky said. “From what I can see, it’s very hard to see that shed from the road or the parking lot, or anywhere other than the windows in the back”. “Hmm”, Burke said thoughtfully. “We have had a lot of people doing things back here over the last week or so. One person came to fix the Heater, another was configuring the Alarm System, another came to deliver some new groceries thru the back, and plenty more.” “Now wait”, said Jeanne. “What brought those first two here? Did you order them, or did they come themselves?”

“They called and said they were with their respective companies, and told us they needed to come and fix them up.” “There’s two suspects right there!” exclaimed Corky. “Why would someone need to come and fix the heater now? It’s August! And the Alarm System worker could very easily have come and disabled the motion sensor, which would certainly explain why it didn’t go off when they came in.”

Burke was shocked. “I never thought of that”, he said. “I do still have their cell numbers, so I can call them to return if you’d like”. “Wait”, said Corky. “Don’t call them directly. If they’re guilty, they’ll know something’s up. If you still have the company names, let us know”. “I have them here”, Burke brought out 2 business cards, one from a heating company and another from an alarm system company. “Thanks. We’ll look this over”, said Jeanne. They headed to Corky’s truck.

“Alright, let’s call the heating company first”, said Jeanne. They did. “Hello”, said the voice on the other line. “Hello, this is Corky, a with Bridgeport Supermarket. My understanding is that you had someone come and take a look at the heater here”? “Hey, yes, we did”. “What prompted you to send them out here? And what would make the heater need attention now, in the middle of Summer?” “Well, we have a list here of all the heaters we’ve installed for homes and businesses around the area. It came to our attention that this one had been placed there 4 years ago, and needed a quick checkup. We didn’t have anyone volunteer, we simply assigned one of our drivers to come check the place”. “Alright, thanks for your help”, Corky said and he hung up.

“Well, that seems clear then – unless of course, the guy on the phone was in on it. He seemed pretty honest though, especially since I pretended to be a worker here”. “Maybe we should call the driver himself and ask him?” Jeanne suggested. “Yeah, good idea”. Corky dialed the cell number. “Hello?” “Hey, I’m Corky with Bridgeport Supermarket. I understand you came here recently to check on a heater”? “Yes, I did”. “What types of issues did you find while looking at it?” “There wasn’t anything wrong with it, I was mainly doing a check, and replacing the filter.” “I see. Did you see anything suspicious while here?” “Hm. Well, I did see thru thee window there was one worker there was using a sledgehammer to smash ice, which was fairly close to a shed back there.” “Anything else?” “Well, yes. On the other side of the back, there was someone else in another uniform modifying the wiring in a panel that was tagged ‘AlarmPanel’. Something really odd about that guy was that he seemd to be oddly eyeing the man in the back working with the ice. I asked him about that, and he said that he just liked smashing ice, and others doing it was fun to watch.” “Thanks a lot for the info”, said Corky and hung up.

“That’s a big lead!” exclaimed Jeanne. “It explains a lot!” “Well, let’s take a look at some evidence”, said Corky. They headed back into the store. “Burke, could you take us back the the alarm system panel where the Alarm fixing agent was working?” Corky requested. “Sure”, he said.

As they headed back, Corky put on gloves and picked up the sledgehammer. “Here it is, folks”, said Burke. “Thanks. We’ll investigate further”. After looking into it,Corky exclaimed, “You can see there that the wire marked ‘Motion sensor’ is unplugged! No wonder he got thru!” Burke seemed stunned. “But, we tested that just a month ago and it worked just fine.” “That brings us even closer!” Jeanne then brought out the white sand used for checking for fingerprints, and poured some on the alarm panel and wires. After a few seconds, she whispered, “Corky, look here. You see here that the fingerprints here perfectly match the new ones on the sledgehammer!” Corky nodded. “Let’s go out and check further”, he said. He unhooked the wires and took them. They headed back to the truck and called the alarm system company. “Hello?” Hey, this is Corky with Brudgeport Supermarket. I understand one of your agents came to fix our alarm here?” “Let me look at our records”, he said. After a moment he said, “There’s no record of that here. From what I can see, the last time we checked on you was about 4 months ago.” “That’s odd, because someone came just a few days ago to check on it. His name was Jake.” “Jake? He’s been on vacation the last 2 weeks, so I’m not sure what you’re playing around with us for.” “When is he supposed to return?” “Tomorrow.” “Thanks. Don’t tell him we called, alright? Instead, could you keep him there until we come, and possibly call us?” “Why? Did something serious happen?” “We’ll explain tomorrow, thanks.” “Alright. See you then.” They hung up.

“Well, that certainly yielded a lot. Let’s go home, and tomorrow head to the alarm system store to interrogate him. Keep this sledge and wire for evidence”, Corky said. The next day, Corky and Jeanne met at the Alarm System store and walked in. “Hello, how can I help?” asked the lady at the desk. “Hi, we’re here for Jake. Is he in?” “He is. For odd reasons, our manager ordered him to stay here. I’ll call him”. A few minutes later, he walked out. “Can I help?” “Hello, I’m Corky, a detective here”. Jake froze immediately. “Could you please show your fingerprints here?” Jake turned and tried to run, but Corky and Jeanne quickly caught him and had him handcuffed quickly. Then the manager stepped out. “What’s going on?” Jeanne explained. “Jake has been suspected of robbery. We’re detectives, and found large evidence pointing toward him.” The manager was shocked. “B-but he’s been working here for such a long time!” “I don’t care if he’s been working here since the business was first started.” Corky pulled out the sledgehammer and wires. “His fingerprints match the ones on these”, he observed. “All the evidence we need.” They called the police and turned over the evidence. Jake was arrested, and a few days later, admitted to robbery of Bridgeport Supermarket. He admitted that he came pretending to fix it, but was really disabling the motion sensor to enable the robbery. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and permanently fired from the Alarm system company.

The end.