Amateur detective

On the street where I used to live it was fairly normal to see many
strangers walking through. It was a main road so people were always
walking past my house travelling on some routine business. As long as I
could remember a man used to walk down this road twice a day. I guess
it was probably to pick up a newspaper. Everyday he took exactly the
same route, I know this because on certain days I would go for a walk
as well. I would travel a different route every time. I've never been
very good at keeping up habits. Changing my route as often as possible
made things a little more interesting for me, it also meant I knew my
local area fairly well. Now I could see this man provided I left my
house at the same time and he was always going the same way along the
same streets. He took Left at Pollis Avenue, a right on Marlowe Street
and then a left at Park Rd. He always finished by crossing the road in
front of the shops. I can't remember the name of this road, I think it
was called Fornley Road but it's not important anyway.

You may be wondering by now what the purpose of this story is and
whether or not it's worth continuing reading it. I'm writing this in
the hope that the good people in my neighborhood can be saved from
anymore injustice. This man who followed the same routine normally
walked with a dog, although on the occasions he didn't he seemed to
take a lot longer walking. The reason I talk about this man is because
I believe he's a master criminal at work. I have deduced that he is
walking up and down the streets in this area so he knows who is away
from their house and which houses are the most vulnerable. Let me
explain:

Two moths ago I moved from where I used to live although I still travel
there sometimes to check on things and say hello to a few friends in
the area. The reason I moved was because I was robbed. You may think
one robbery isn't really a reason to move but I was not the only victim
in the area. It seems that in my area no fewer than twelve houses were
robbed before my own, and since I have moved a further five have been
robbed. In total in the area there are eighteen houses that have been
victims. Can you believe it eighteen houses in my area? If that isn't a
crime spree I don't know what is. Since the police have no leads on who
the criminals are or what they are planning, I have decided to do my
own investigations. I have already told you of my suspicions about the
man who takes the same route every day. For the sake of this
investigation I will call him the routine man.

My other suspects are a pair of men I often see late at night walking
past my house to the shops and back the same way. I believe these men
are even more likely to be the criminals then routine man. I believe
this because they both wear very dark clothes and they always carry a
bag when they are coming back, that they aren't carrying on their first
pass by my house. They are both fairly young and I believe that they
may be students who dropped out of school and took to a life of crime.
My suspicions about these two have been so great that I have been
watching for them on the occasional evening that I have stayed at my
old house in the area. They travel almost every night and on some
evenings after they travel houses are robbed. I know this for a fact as
I have been taking newspaper cuttings.

My other suspect, the final one, is also a man by himself. When I wake
early enough I see this man travel by my house to a van parked at the
end of the street. He is always running and I believe this is because
he is in a rush to get away before anyone wakes up. He has however
underestimated me, as I often wake up very early having to feed the
pigeons I keep in my loft. I know for sure that he has a ladder in the
back of his van and he carries tools for house breaking. I find that
the police have not noticed any of these men to be quite shocking and I
aim to find out which one of these people are involved in the recent
crime spree.

I have placed in my front upstairs bedroom a video camera, which I have
recently come into possession of and have begun to film the suspects.
In this way I believe I will be able to collect evidence against the
suspects. This morning I managed to film the routine man. He was
walking with his dog and looking everywhere. I believe that he was
trying to do this without being noticed, as he didn't seem to be
looking anywhere in particular. I did notice though that he looked
several times in the direction of Mrs. Hartley's house whose alarm had
gone of unfortunately yesterday evening. This is very suspicious and I
believe that he may try to rob her house next because of her having a
dodgy alarm system.

Later today I have also managed to film the two men wearing dark
clothes. They were walking down the street together and I found it
difficult to get a good picture of them on the video camera. Using a
camera with a telephoto lens I did snap a few pictures of their faces.
I have to say they did not look like robbers in fact they looked like
what we in the old day would call Nancy boys. Although I know this is
not politically correct I am ashamed to say I do not know much about
things like this today. I do know however not to judge a book by it's
cover and these two men have become much more suspicious today. One of
them took out one of those awful mobile telephone contraptions and made
a call on it. I believe he said very little and I think the call may
have been a check to find out if the house he was approaching was
empty. Later they walked past again and I managed to get some more
pictures. They carried two bags one of them I could see into by using
the zoom function on the camera. It contained things, which were
wrapped in newspaper to prevent them being damaged. The other bag was
large and I couldn't see into it at all, but I believe it contained
more stolen goods. Well after this you could tell I was very tempted to
call the police right away, but I still could not be sure so I waited
all through the night to try and get some video of my last
suspect.

My final suspect was very clever I don't know how he managed what it is
that he did but I believe he parked his van at the end of my street
last night while I took my nap. I did not think ahead wisely enough to
realize I should be thinking about getting him on film on his way to
the crime, as well as on his escape route. However I did spot him
walking past my house at about five thirty this morning just before the
sun began to come up. He walked to his van in the usual hurry carrying
a huge bag over his shoulder. He could not of looked more obvious if he
had worn a black and white striped top a mask and had written swag
across his bag. I was amazed at the gall of the man; he didn't even
look around nervously. I guess this is probably because he believed
that no one would be around at this time in the morning. In this
neighborhood we don't get milk delivered and the paperboy doesn't get
his papers out until about eight o'clock. Now that I had my evidence I
have decided to call the police. They have been saying that the suspect
is likely to be someone who actually lives in the area and I believe
all three of my suspects to be living within a couple of miles of my
very house.

I faxed a covering letter to the police about my work on this case for
them. I have no doubt that my work will be very unprofessional, but I
was sure that every little bit would help. They sent a fax to me but
I'm afraid I haven't used a fax machine very often and they had to send
it twice, this probably made them think I was even more of a fool. In
the end however they said they would like to see my investigative
efforts. I said I would fax them all to them including the photographs
and they said it was all-right they would send a courier around so they
could see the tapes too. I must say I was quite impressed at how well
they received the news that I was doing some work myself.

Well the courier came two hours ago and I am sure the police will have
begun to look at my work no doubt they will be arresting someone very
soon. I must say I am quite proud of myself.

I have just received a very rude phone call from an inspector Priestly,
he was very nasty, although I must say I can see why. It seems my
investigation was very shoddy I must remember to be more careful about
my suspects. He told me that they would be grateful if I didn't attempt
to help them with their case anymore and that I would not be hearing
from the police in a very long time.

It turns out you see that the man I called routine man happens to be
blind. This does explain a lot like why he travels faster with his dog
and why he kept moving his head in the direction of the alarm. It also
explains why he always takes the same route. The two men I mentioned
before were approached by the police for questioning. It appears they
go for a take away nearly every night from the shops at the end of my
road. They call ahead so they don't have to wait long and sometimes
they pick up laundry, which explains most things. Incidentally the
inspector did say that Nancy boys were an unacceptable term for their
relationship. I told him that I knew that but didn't know what else to
say. The final man it turns out does a lot of work roofing and things
like that. It just happens that he gets a call nearly every morning
from someone whose roof fell in last night or something similar.

Well after my investigation I must admit to feeling a bit silly. Today
my son is coming to take me back to that place I'm supposed to of moved
to, some kind of hotel he said there lots of people my age there.
Although before I go I must remember to return all the things I've been
borrowing from people for my investigations. Especially the things I
borrowed before it even started, like that lovely television I borrowed
from the Greens while they were away they must be missing it by now.
All that camera equipment must be expensive as well unfortunately I
can't for the life of me remember what came from whom. Oh well I'm sure
they won't mind if I just put up a notice saying I have it all.