"Good morning, officers. I am the owner of the Jewelry store, I left home immediately after I got your call", Mr. Brad introduced himself immediately after he arrived at the crime scene.
"Welcome sir, we were alerted by some neighbors that there might be a possible robbery going on in your store because they noticed some unusual movement about an hour ago. We came around to check and found the store door broken so we want you to check if anything was taken from the store", one of the officers responded.
They all went into the store to inspect and everything was intact until they were about 10 feet away from a small vault where he keeps very expensive jewelry.
"They are gone", he screamed from afar while staring at the open vault.
"You can't go any further sir, we need to get fingerprints, footprints, or anything around the vault," another officer said while pointing a light at the vault.
They went outside after calling for the forensic team to gather evidence that could be used to continue investigation.
"There must be something valuable in the vault", an officer said to Mr. Brad.
"I just acquired a diamond necklace and I kept in the vault", he responded.
The forensic team arrived and gathered everything they could. The police went in later to check the cameras but the burglar was smart enough to cover his face.
All they could get from the footage was that he had a designer hoodie and some grey hair that could be seen covering his forehead.
They checked street cameras and found nothing, the criminal must have studied the environment to avoid any camera.
Mr. Brad was invited by the Police to the station to answer a few questions that could aid their investigation.
"Do you suspect anyone, sir?", the investigator appointed to the case asked.
"No, I haven't been able to think of anyone", Mr. Brad replied.
The interrogation went on for a while and at the end, the investigator played the footage from the camera again.
"These clothes look familiar", Mr. Brad pointed to the screen and the video was paused.
He brought out his phone to check something online.
"It can't be, he won't be dumb to do such a thing", Mr. Brad looked surprised as he stared at his phone.
"Can I see that?", the investigator asked.
He showed him a picture and it turned out to be Mr. Wax, another jewelry seller in the town.
The investigator was shocked to see the hoodie and hair color in video looking exactly like Mr. Wax, the interrogation ended and Mr. Brad was allowed to go.
Mr. Max's residence was agent Rick first stop after interrogating Mr. Brad, he parked a few blocks away from his house to observe anything suspicious.
He was there for about an hour but nothing happened so he made up his mind to visit him. Agent Rick knocked several times but didn't get any response.
He checked around and peeped through the windows into the house but no one was at home.
"Could it be Mr. Max? Why would he do such a thing?", a lot of questions crossed his mind but there were no answers.
Agent Rick left his house and on his way back to the station, he got a call from the forensic unit.
There was no fingerprint on the vault but he was sent a shoe print which was pointless to him and later that day, Mr. Max was eventually called in for interrogation.
"Are you aware that Mr. Brad's store was robbed", Agent Rick asked.
"Such news spread like wildfire, is that why I was called in by the Police?", He responded.
"We just need to know a few things about your activities yesterday and today", the agent replied.
Mr. Max gave the information and after they confirmed everything he said was true, he was allowed to leave.
Agent Rick was furious that all evidence didn't point a finger at the culprit of what happened in the store.
On his way home that night, he gave one of the senior forensic unit staff a lift.
"You seem disturbed Rick, is everything okay?", Agent Tonia asked.
"I am good, there is this case giving me a headache. All the evidence we gathered led to nothing", he responded.
He gave her his phone to check the pictures from the forensic unit. She scrolled through them and stopped at one.
Agent Tonia zoomed the picture and stared at it for a while.
There are particles on the shoe print, we should check out what it is first.
"Are you in a hurry?", she asked Rick who was already making a U-turn.
They arrived at the station and headed for the forensic unit immediately. The agents spent the whole night digging more into the shoe print.
"The particles beneath the shoes are a rare kind of soil sample", Tonia informed Rick immediately after she found something.
They checked where the sample can be found and they set out that night to check the areas.
Rick found a old car covered with black nylon in one of the sites with the soil sample. He called the HQ for the car plate to be checked and it turned out to be registered in Mr. Brad's name about 12 years ago.
They got fingerprints from the car door handle and went back to the forensic unit.
The scan result came out and it turned out to be Mr. Brad's fingerprints.
Agent Rick immediately summoned some officers and they went to pick up Mr. Brad at his residence.
He denied having connections with every piece of evidence until they forcefully opened the car. The hoodie, wig and even the shoe with the print found at the store was found in the car.
"How do you explain this?", Agent Rick turned to ask Mr. Brad.
He still denied it but his voice and eyes said otherwise. Mr. Brad broke into tears as he was escorted back to the police van.
Agent Rick sat next to him and while heading back to the station, he opened up everything he did.
"I am sorry, I wanted to ridicule Max because his business is growing better than mine. I allowed jealousy to get into my head and it turned out to be all this for me", he ended his confession before they arrived at the station.