Project Xx-Join Us.

Not me

On his way to see the bike guy, he drove to the scene where the car had been collected by the repo company. By look the car was there. After knocking on a few doors the officer found out whose car it was.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Who are you?"

The officer pulled out his leather wallet and flashed his shiny gold police badge.

"I'm from the city police,  just wanted to ask you a few questions. Did your car get repossessed a few weeks ago?"

"No, I've never been in any kind of debt the person replied. But someone turned my car around. I thought it was a prank from the guys at work but no one owned up, and my keys were in my locker. No one took my locker key!"

"Who turned your car around?"

"I've no idea! You're the detective you tell me"

Not yet he muttered under his breath.

Thanks. He looked at the car. Although small the VW Lupo weighed 856 Kg / 1887 lbs-well that's what the Google search revealed. Could a group of people pick the car up? Did kids still do that? Maybe flip it on its side but lift the car and turn it around?? How many of them? How strong were these kids? ...well he presumed that they were teens but he couldn't rule out older people. No idea why though older folk would be lifting cars and turning them around. Social media pranks maybe, probably using tools. Maybe there's a pattern here.

He drove to the cycle guy's house and read the note.

"I'll need to take that in," he said after reading the note and slipping it into an evidence bag.

"Do you know if any of your neighbours have camera doorbells?"

"No idea officer. I wouldn't bother trying that house they don't even cut their lawn or trim their hedges" The guy pointed to the house which wasn't as well kept as the others nor did it have an electric car in the drive.

They're not the solution thought the officer, electric cars aren't the way forward. Hybrids & hydrogen. Electric was a clumsy knee-jerk reaction.

All of these posh houses but no camera doorbells or CCTV. I'll try that messy house he thought, After all, it is opposite, and I don't judge people.

As soon as the officer walks up the wild, scruffy overgrown driveway he knew it was a jackpot in terms of evidence. He could already see CCTV cameras and a camera doorbell at the side of the door. He knocked.

The nicest person, if a little bit geeky came to the door. This address was so much more accommodating than the other well-kept doors he knocked on.

"I'm with the city police mind if I ask you a few questions"

"Sure come in. Mind the mess I work from home"

It wasn't a mess in the sense of dust or rubbish the house was spotless. There were just a lot of wires.

"I work in computers"

"You mean with?"

"No, in computers. Have you seen Tron? It's like that. I use virtual reality to design quantum computers"

"Wow, you have a lot of tech here. By any chance can I see your doorbell footage"

"Sure....when?"

"Go back to the 21st"

"What sort of time?"

"1400 hrs"

"Okay...this ain't take long"

And it didn't. Not like the computers in the office, this was instant.

"There you go"

The footage showed a person, around 5ft 6, with broad shoulders, a pink hoody, hood up, black leggings and white trainers. You could see the motif on them, it matched the trainers worn by the suspect at the scene of the bike theft. The image looked like it was possibly a female, but there was no clear shot of the face. It just couldn't zoom in far enough for the officer to be 100%, but it certainly looked like a female. The footage showed the suspect wheeling the bike to the address lifting it over the gate and slowly lowering it with one arm. My only guess was as it was early they didn't want to wake anyone with the gate.

"Great footage, can I have a copy of this?"

"Sure"

"So you do stuff with computers. Can you work on images with missing frames?"

"My software and computers are so out of this world I could recreate the missing frames!"

"Hmmm, I might have some work for you, thanks!"

So some girls, or women were doing pranks likely for social media. That's what the officer believed and that's the main theory for now.

The officer felt quite pleased with himself that this case was going well. He decided to celebrate with a coffee.