Crime Pays
BOR (Yugoslavia) — This unsolvable crime had all the makings of a classic whodunnit:
The Yugoslavian factory FLŽ had been besieged by a cunning serial thief who was stealing valuable rolls of copper from the storeroom. There was never any evidence of forced entry, and security personnel never detected any intruders. Even the guard dog had nothing to report.
Still, the factory was losing hundreds of dollars in pilfered copper balls each night, so management decided to install a CCTV monitoring system. A factory spokesperson tells what the cameras soon revealed:
"While the men were watching the perimeter the dog was behind them stealing the merchandise—and covering her tracks by burying her loot."
"Džeki" the guard dog had been sneaking into the storeroom through small holes and had stolen thousands of dollars worth of copper.
The spokesperson explains: "There seems to be something about the smell of the wire that is treated with a special protective coat that the dog liked, and she was burying them presumably for a rainy day. Dogs will often bury food that is too hard to eat because it softens in the ground or to store it."
With the help of a metal detector, factory personnel were able to recover most of Džeki's loot from where she had stashed it in the yard. About €300 worth ($300 US) still remains unaccounted for, but managers are hopeful that the guilty dog might lead them back to the spot where it is buried.
Employers have decided not to prosecute, and Džeki has been allowed to remain on the job, as long as the storeroom is kept "dog proof".
