Yang Lin sighed, "What's so strange about this, the scooter was stolen from the residential area, it wasn't like the chief's name was written on it. If it's meant to be stolen, it'll be stolen."
It's not the first time a police officer's belongings got stolen.
Song Jiangguo, the esteemed director of the City Public Security Bureau, had his father-in-law's place broken into.
No one understood this better than Lu Chuan.
"We've been investigating for several days. There are surveillance cameras nearby, but they're not very clear, so we haven't been able to catch anyone."
Lu Chuan nodded. Most petty thefts aren't really unsolvable.
Nowadays, quite a few surveillance cameras are installed in residential areas and malls, but only a few are high-definition.
In such cases, most of the time you can find a video of the theft.
But thieves are no fools.
When stealing, they either choose a dark time or wear masks and hoodies.
Even if the camera captures something, it's usually unclear or doesn't capture the full face.
And sometimes, even if you capture the full face, finding the person just from a face is still difficult.
The best way is to lock in their personal information using fingerprints, which makes it easier to catch them.
"Alright, once patrols are over, I'll go take a look."
The two hadn't seen each other in a long time, chatted about Lu Chuan's accomplishments, and quickly finished the patrol task.
After handing over to the next shift, the two went to the Huaguang Street police station.
"It's this one, the video captured it at the time, but it's hard to see the person's face clearly."
On Yang Lin's computer was the surveillance of the theft.
Huang Jianmin's electric scooter was parked in the non-motor vehicle parking area at the entrance of his apartment building.
There was a surveillance camera in the corner, which could capture the vehicles in the parking area.
Lu Chuan checked the time; it was a little past eleven at night, and due to the camera angle, it only captured half of the person's face.
"Rewind it, let me see from the beginning."
Yang Lin rewound the video. The time showed ten fifty-six.
"The suspect was initially here."
Yang Lin pointed to a swaying shadow in the upper left corner of the video, "He was probably observing... now he's moving in."
In the video, the shadow slowly approached from the dark, not in a hurry, almost like strolling.
Because the parking area was illuminated, there was a light and dark transition as he moved out of the shadows.
The man in the video, wearing a blue down jacket, had his hood up, covering most of his face.
Initially, he didn't head straight for Huang Jianmin's scooter but instead targeted a nearby Yadea scooter.
In the video, the man pulled out something like a key from his pocket and stuck it into the keyhole of the Yadea's lock.
In just a few moments, he unlocked it, but when he tried to start the scooter, he noticed a U-lock on the rear wheel.
He quickly gave up and turned to the scooter next to the Yadea.
That was Huang Jianmin's scooter.
Huang Jianmin's scooter didn't have a U-lock; it only had the built-in handlebar lock.
The kind that, once locked, prevents the handlebars from turning and the scooter from being ridden normally.
The thief looked around, confirmed the scooter only had the built-in handlebar lock, and repeated his earlier actions.
Inserting a key into the keyhole of the electric scooter, wiggling it a couple of times, and the handlebars straightened.
Then, he turned the key and rode off in a flash.
"This technique, he's a habitual offender."
Though Yang Lin hadn't worked at the police station for long, he had dealt with many cases.
Especially electric scooter thefts, which occur almost daily.
In this business, there's a significant difference between newbies and habitual offenders.
Habitual offenders are skilled and experienced; they can deal with a typical electric scooter in mere seconds.
Newbies are different; lacking skill, they cautiously work on a scooter, sometimes unable to handle one faster than a cigarette burns.
Moreover, thieves of different eras have different traits.
In the past, due to fewer surveillance cameras, thefts primarily involved violent means.
Using a pickup truck and bolt cutters, finding a cluster of scooters, they could haul away dozens under the cover of darkness.
Later, with the widespread adoption of surveillance cameras, pickups became too conspicuous and easy to catch.
Violent thefts gradually decreased, evolving into primarily technical thefts, with violent ones as a supplement.
Clearly, the thief who stole Director Huang Jianmin's scooter was skilled, swift, and unhurried, as if riding his own scooter home.
"This method requires at least dozens of scooter theft experiences to be this smooth."
Yang Lin had a lot to say on this matter.
But despite his insights, they hadn't caught anyone.
Lu Chuan was also not very experienced with such cases.
Cases he handled, aside from back when he first started, were mostly homicide-related.
Even if not homicides, they were at least robbery or severe assault.
"Is the first scooter he tried to steal still there?"
Technical scooter thieves also have their weaknesses.
They generally avoid scooters with U-locks.
Not because they couldn't deal with U-locks, but because there are plenty of scooters without U-locks, so why bother with the protected ones?
They prefer easy targets where success is likely.
"It should still be there; all these scooters belong to residents of Director Huang's apartment building. As long as they weren't stolen, they should be there."
Lu Chuan nodded, "Let's go check the site."
For such thieves, if they are on a wanted or investigation notice, Lu Chuan's Eye of Truth could naturally spot them.
But without that information, Lu Chuan was powerless and could only solve the case with existing information.
And from a video alone, Lu Chuan couldn't directly identify the suspect.
Below Huang Jianmin's residential building.
A disorganized cluster of a dozen or so electric scooters formed three or four rows.
"Here it is, the scooter's still here."
Yang Lin immediately spotted the Yadea scooter targeted first by the thief.
Lu Chuan noticed it too; among the dozen scooters, this one looked the newest.
A pink color with cartoon stickers pasted on it.
Even the pink hand covers for warmth indicated its owner was likely female.
"Have the fingerprints been wiped?"
Lu Chuan pointed to the handlebars of the pink Yadea's warm hand covers.
"Ah, no, for such minor cases, we typically don't collect fingerprints, and even if we did, no one's going to analyze them."
Yang Lin replied confidently, a mere scooter, even if the fingerprints were collected, no analysis would be done.
He was the "above" that Yang Lin referred to, or rather, the "above" of the "above."
Fingerprint evidence collected by the police station usually goes to the technical appraisal center. If they can't handle it, it might go to the Criminal Investigation Team.
But that depends on whether it's an important case.
For a stolen scooter, such a trivial case, even if Lu Chuan saw it, he wouldn't bother stepping in.
Huang Jianmin could make some calls, but Lu Chuan suspected he wouldn't want to lose face over it.