BlueLand City Police - the midnight thief

Chapter One - The First Call

"Hey Sarge, could you take a look at this please, I'd like a second opinion". "Pardon me officer Rob" replied Sergeant Stiffo as he turned his nose. "Sorry, hey Sergeant, could you take a look at this please, I'd like a second opinion". "Certainly officer" replied Sergeant Stiffo as he placed down his mug of coffee. "These men who are fighting on the CCTV footage" said Rob as he pointed at the computer screen, "I can't tell who hit who first". "Hmmm, a challenging one indeed Rob" replied Sergeant Stiffo with an interrogatory expression, "see if you can zoom in". "Zooming in" answered Rob as he made the picture bigger. "Now play it frame by frame" ordered Stiffo. "There !" he exclaimed. "It looks like the man in the blue jumper hits out first". "Yeah I see that too" responded Rob, "I'll bring him in for questioning". "Good man" replied Stiffo as he took another sip of his coffee.

Sergeant Stiffo wore a coal black shirt and trousers with a heavenly white badge on the top of each shirt sleeve. There was a pocket on either side of the shirt. He wore a white belt with a silver buckle and had a pistol strapped to his waist. He wore black boots and had an English style moustache. He had dark hair and often wore sun glasses. Officer Rob had brown hair and was clean shaven. He wore a sky blue shirt with silver buttons and had a pocket on either side of the shirt. He wore a black belt with a silver buckle and had navy blue cargo pants. He also wore black boots and had a pistol strapped to his waist. The communications room which Rob and Stiffo were in is on the second and top floor of the station. The room is in an octagonal shape and has a sky blue desk spanning around the perimeter of the room. It has two computers, two telephones and two navy blue chairs for officers to sit in when doing their work. The room has five glistening windows that also span around the perimeter of the room.

As Stiffo took another slurp of coffee, one of the two phones in the communications room started to ring. Stiffo answered the call, "good morning BlueLand City Police, your through to station twenty-two. Yes sir. I see sir. We'll get someone to you right away sir. Good day". "What's happened sir ?" asked Rob as Stiffo put down the phone. "The ice-cream store on Ball Lane, the owner has turned up this morning to find the door forced and his safe busted, around five grand in cash has been stolen". "Oh dear" replied Rob as stiffo picked up the phone again and dilled a number. "Yes, I need Scenes of Crime at 382 Ball Lane as soon as possible please, a burglary has been reported. Thank you very much". Leaving Officer Rob to deal with communications for the day, Sergeant Stiffo went down the steep stairs and into the Office in search of an officer who could accompany him to the scene. In the Office, Stiffo found officers Chen and Lisa. Officer Chen was of Asian decent. She had dark hair and wore a navy blue shirt and trousers with golden buttons and a pocket on each side of the shirt. She also wore a sky blue shirt underneath the navy coloured shirt with a navy blue tie. Chen was also wearing black shoes and a white police hat which had a golden police badge on the front and a navy blue peak. She also had a pistol strapped to her waist. Officer Lisa had blonde hair and wore an identical hat to officer Chen. Lisa wore a sky blue shirt with silver buttons and a pocket on each side of the shirt. Lisa also wore navy blue trousers, black shoes, a black belt and she also had a pistol strapped to her waist. The Office had white walls with a couple of wanted posters that had been pinned up. There was only one desk as the room was rather small. On the desk was a laptop, a mug of freshly made coffee and a police radio. The Office had one small window with a microphone system so that if members of the public wished to speak to officers they could go to the small window and an officer in the Office could speak with them. The room was also shaped octagonally like the communications room and had two yellow chairs for officers to sit in.

"I need an officer to accompany me to the scene of a burglary, any volunteers ?" asked Stiffo. "I'll go with you sir" responded Lisa enthusiastically "we've not had a burglary for a while now". "Indeed, so lets put a stop to this now before the criminal responsible decides to make a habit of it" said Stiffo. Sergeant Stiffo and Officer Lisa then went outside, hopped into the station squad car and started to make way to the address. The station squad car was similar to LAPD squad cars. It had a black front and back with white in the middle. It also had working red and blue lights and a siren system. The word police was printed on either side of the squad car along with the BlueLand City Police badge. The badge and the word police were both also printed on the white hood of the squad car. On arrival Stiffo and Lisa could see that scenes of crime had already arrived and were gathering every piece of evidence that they could. "What have we got officer ?" asked Sergeant Stiffo as he approached one of the scenes of crime officers. "Looks like a professional job sir, all cctv cameras destroyed, the door looks like it was forced quite quickly and the theif gained access to the safe rather quickly". "Hmmm, interesting" replied Sergeant Stiffo, "where is the victim ?", "stood over there behind the counter sir" answered the crime scene investigation officer.

The Ice-Cream store was made of orange bricks and in a rectangular shape. It had a large window displaying the ice-cream options and a small door on the right side. Inside there was a fringe that people could select drinks from, and then after the fridge was the counter where the owner, Mr Jones, was stood sobbing. The counter was made of glass and had a number of cake options on display underneath it. The walls were a depressing colour of dirt brown and the floor was beige in colour. There were several cake and ice-cream advertisement posters up on the walls. "Good morning Mr Jones" said Sergeant Stiffo as he approached the owner. "Good morning" sobbed Mr Jones. Mr Jones wore a white shirt with black trousers and black shoes. He also wore a black belt and a green apron. "We would like to ask you a few questions if that's alright with you?" asked Stiffo. "Of course" replied Mr Jones tearfully. "I'll leave you with my colleague Officer Lisa, she'll take your statement". Sergeant Stiffo went to investigate the scene whilst Lisa took the victims statement. "So sir, when did you first notice that the store had been buglarised ?" asked Lisa as she got out her notepad. "This morning when I turned up to open the door" answered Mr Jones. "Mhm, and what time was this sir ?" questioned Lisa, "around 8AM, so around an hour ago" replied Mr Jones. "Ok, could you please describe the items that have been taken" asked Lisa, "just cash, about five grand of it" exclaimed Mr Jones as he burst into tears again. "Ok, ok Mr Jones" said Lisa with a calming tone. "You have given me enough information for now, thank you".

Stiffo and Lisa then left the scene with the information that they had gathered. On the drive back to the station, Stiffo and Lisa had started to ponder. "This is an interesting one Lisa, the thief was almost in and out and left barely any evidence to go off" said Stiffo, "I know sir, I've been wondering how the thief managed to gain entry to the safe so quickly, and how did they know where all the cctv cameras were to destroy them ?" replied Lisa. "Perhaps the thief went into the store acting as a customer whilst planning the robbery to scope the place out, meaning he would have known where the cctv cameras were in order to destroy them when he went in" suggested Stiffo. "Yes, maybe he did. How else would he have known where the cameras were so quickly ?" said Lisa. "Ok Lisa, we'll go into the office and review the cctv camera footage that was caught just before the cameras were destroyed" ordered Stiffo as they pulled into the station. Back in the confined Office room, Stiffo and Lisa were reviewing the footage. "Look sir, the thief just walks up and knocks down the outside camera with a crowbar. This is at 1AM" said Lisa as she pointed at the laptop screen. Then the footage shows the thief forcing the door open with a crowbar and knocking the rest of the cctv cameras down with their crowbar. "Hmmm, you can't get a good look at the thief because it's dark and is they're wearing a balaclava" pointed out Stiffo. "Well all the cctv is good for is telling us what time it happened, which was at 1AM" sighed Lisa.