BlueLand City Police - the midnight thief

Chapter 2 - The Pattern Begins

The next day Officer Lisa was catching up on paperwork in the communications room. Next to her was Officer Blondie, he, unsurprisingly, has bright blonde hair and wears the same police hat that Officers Lisa and Chen wear. He also wore a navy blue shirt with silver buttons and a pocket on each side of the shirt. The shirt had the word police written on the top, right side of the shirt in silver and police was written across the back of the shirt again, in silver. He wore navy blue pants, black shoes and had a pistol strapped to his waist. As Lisa was typing away at her paperwork one of the two phones in the communications room started ringing, she answered. "Hello BlueLand City Police, your through to station 22" said Lisa "yes, of course madam, what's the address please? We're on our way". "What's the matter ?" Asked Blondie. "There's been another burglary, it's the computer store. It's only just further up the road from yesterday's burglary at the ice-cream store" responded Lisa. "What's this ? Another burglary !" exclaimed Sergeant Stiffo as he entered the room. "Yes sir, at the computer store, just up the road from yesterday's burglary" answered Lisa. "Hmmm, coincidence ? I think not !" yelled the infuriated Sergeant. "Come on Lisa, we'll attend the scene. Blondie, you get scenes of crime there immediately !" barked stiffo. "Right away sir" replied Blondie as he hastily picked up the phone.

Lisa and Stiffo jumped into the squad car and made way for the computer store. On arrival the officers found a distressed Mrs Winter, the woman who owned the computer store, standing outside of the store. Mrs Winter was a middle aged woman with dark, greasy hair. She wore a purple jumper and ocean blue jeans. She also wore brown, leather shoes and a golden necklace. Her computer store had a large window with several computers on display and the store also had a blue door to match the blue window frame. "Don't you worry Mrs Winter, we're here now" said Stiffo as he exited the squad car. "Oh Sergeant, whatever will I do ? Nine grand worth of electrical items have been taken. I'm ruined !" cried Mrs Winter. As Sergeant Stiffo was working on calming the victim, scenes of crime pulled up in their white van. "Another one ?" asked the scenes of crime officer as he exited his van. "Indeed officer, it's a disgrace" replied Stiffo. "Come with me in our car Mrs Winter, I'll cheer you up" said Lisa as she took the victim away into the squad car. "Hmmm, it looks like the door has been forced" said Stiffo as he investigated the doorway, stroking his moustache. "I agree Sergeant. And the cameras have all been destroyed, just like they were at the ice-cream store. We may have a serial burglar on our hands" warned the CSI officer. "I've managed to calm her down and I've taken her statement" said Lisa as she came over with Mrs Winter from the squad car. "Very good" replied Sergeant Stiffo. 

Back at the station Stiffo was looking at the cctv footage whilst Lisa called Mr Jones to follow up on Stiffos theory that the thief might have come into the store to scope the place out. However he said that he couldn't remember anyone particularly suspicious coming into the ice-cream store. Lisa also gave Mrs Winter a call but she said the same thing, that she couldn't remember having any suspicious customers in recent weeks. "Well that lead quickly went down the drain" sighed Lisa, "having any luck with the cctv Sergeant ?". "I'm afraid not" answered Stiffo, "you can't get a good look at the burglar, it's just too dark and they have their face covered. Evening soon came around. As Lisa was picking up her bag, preparing to go home,  Stiffo was still sat in the office with tired eyes, looking over and over again at the footage to see if he noticed anything different. "Aren't you heading home sir ?" asked Lisa, "I must solve this case Lisa, it's driving me insane" responded Stiffo with a tired voice. "Very well sir, just make sure that you go home soon" advised Lisa, "I will" replied  Stiffo.

That evening, Stiffo found himself being awoken by the phone ringing upstairs in the communications room. He had fallen asleep in the Office whilst looking over cctv footage. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was 1:42 AM, "who could be calling at this time" wondered Stiffo as he quickly rushed up to the communications room where he found Officer Rob talking on the phone. "We'll be with you right away ! Goodbye" said Rob as Stiffo entered the room "what's going on ?" asked Stiffo. "It's the same street sir ! It's Ball Lane ! A burglary in progress, at the tool store !" barked Rob. "YOU WHAT !" exclaimed Stiffo as he grabbed the radio. "Attention all available units, we've got a possible burglary in progress at the tool store on Ball Lane ! Respond immediately !" yelled Stiffo into the radio, "Rob show me responding in the squad car !" "yes sir !" answered Rob. Sergeant Stiffo sprinted like a gazelle, down the stairs and into the squad car. He left the station in a hurry, red and blue lights flashing and sirens wailing.

The tool store had a white door and a white sign saying tools. It also had two small windows. In both windows were displays of various tools, both manual and electrical.

As Stiffo raced through the quiet streets like a mad man, he could hear communications going on over his radio. "Unit 273, responding" "unit 227, responding" "unit 436, I'm five minutes out". As Stiffo arrived on scene, he could see that another unit from station nineteen had already arrived. "Where is he ! Where's the burglar !" bellowed Stiffo as he rushed over to the two response officers that were standing outside of the store. "We don't know sir, there's no sign" replied one of the officers. "UNBELEVEABLE !" screamed Stiffo. Stiffo grabbed his radio and barked "I need the helicopter ! Get it up ! Get it up NOW !".  "I'm sorry Sergeant, there's no helicopter available at the moment, it's on it's way to an urgent call in Playmobil City" responded the communications room. "DAIM IT !" yelled Stiffo in rage. Neighbours started to emerge from their homes and businesses as the street filled with red and blue lights. Several more units had now arrived on scene. "I'm sorry sir, their long gone" said one of the officers as he patted Stiffo on the back to comfort him. "Get scenes of crime here ! Get them here NOW !" ordered Stiffo, who was filled with rage. 

The following morning another crime scene cordon had been put in place around the tool store. Sergeant Stiffo and Officer Lisa soon pulled up outside of the cordon and approached the crime scene investigation officers that were gathering evidence. "Tell me you have something on our thief" said Stiffo. "I'm pleased to report that we do have something sir" replied one of the CSI officers, "a footprint accidentally left behind by the crook whilst he was making his escape. We believe he was spooked by approaching police sirens, hence the reason he didn't have time to clean up any footprint evidence that he had left behind". "Brilliant ! Finally something to work with !" exclaimed Sergeant Stiffo as he jumped for joy. Stiffo and Lisa then returned to the station to investigate the footprint that had been recovered at the crime scene. The pair went up to the communications room and put the footprint through a database in order to identify the type of shoe that the footprint came from. It turned out that the shoe in which the footprint came from was a new brand of shoe called the playmo shoe. Further investigation uncovered that there are only eleven pairs of the shoe in the BlueLand area. Shockingly, the tool store owner, Mr Strett, owned one of the eleven pairs.

"What's this !" yelled Sergeant Stiffo, "Mr Strett owns one of the 11 pairs in the BlueLand area !". "How strange indeed !" replied Lisa, "how should we approach this ? Accuse Mr Strett of burgling three stores including his own ?" asked Lisa. "No no, not accuse him. But we do need to ask him a few questions" replied Stiffo.