The Pocket-Dial Burglar
Surrey, England, 2014. A man broke into a house. He was, by the standards of his profession, competent — efficient, methodical, prepared. There was just one detail he had not accounted for. The phone in his front pocket.
His pocket dialled 999. Surrey Police picked up. The dispatcher heard a man calmly listing items, naming an accomplice, and discussing routes — through the muffle of a pair of jeans. She did not hang up. She kept the line open for twelve minutes. Officers triangulated the call to a specific house in a specific street, drove there, and walked in on the burglary in progress.
Kit and Eden on what may be the single most complete piece of disclosure evidence ever produced in a UK burglary trial: a twelve-minute audio recording of the entire crime, made by the criminal, narrated by the criminal, and submitted to the police by the criminal's own front pocket.
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The Locked-In Gym Robber
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The Spider-Man Burglar
Turin, 2017. A man identifies a third-floor apartment as a burglary target. The owners are away. The doors are locked. So he stands in the street and looks up. He grabs the wrought iron of a first-floor balcony and pulls himself up. Then the second floor. Then he reaches for the third — and his trousers catch on a decorative flourish of the railing.
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