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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 19, 2011 16:46:23 GMT
Sherlock, we've been trying to help out a man that came to us for help but we've no real evidence of any crime being committed and in any case, there doesn't seem to be any leads, so we've deferred the situation to you.
His name's Martin Wells, came to us two weeks ago. He had responded to an ad in a newspaper recently in the job column, apparently submitted by a company looking for a new intern. The company called themselves Vor Security Inc, and claimed to be a company that installed security devices for museums, art galleries and so on. He phoned and got an interview booked, but when he turned up to the location he was told, it was just a block of flats and nobody around there had heard of Vor Security.
We've looked into it, and there doesn't appear to be any such company, and never has been. We tried to write it off as a joke but Mr Wells tells us that since the incident he's felt like he's being watched, and is sure that someone is entering his house and moving his possessions. Nothing has been stolen, but things tend to be out of place. The only genuinely suspicious things are that his cat was killed after being hit by a car three days ago, could be coincidence though, and his friends all stopped inviting him out suddenly around the same time as the fake interview, when before he had had a very active social life and been out around 3 nights a week.
Security cameras near the premises have shown the normal sorts of people, nearby residents and so on, are the only people who have been near lately, and Wells refuses to have any cameras in his house so there's nothing more we can do there.
We've tried to be patient with him and assure him that he's just being paranoid, but he keeps insisting and he's wasted enough police time now. If you can prove that nothing is happening (or that something is, which seems unlikely) and get him off our backs, we'd be grateful.
A quick background check on Wells showed up clean, no past convictions. He's a bachelor, 39 years old, university graduate and currently living on benefits. His last job was secretarial work at a building supply company. Current family includes mother and father who live together in North London, and a younger sister who lives very near to Wells, recently engaged to a professor.
If you need any more details, you know where to contact me.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 19, 2011 20:26:39 GMT
Sounds like a fairly common scam, although the fact that his friends stopped interacting with him is a bit odd. Did Mr. Wells brag to his friends about the job? That could have caused trouble, particularly if Vor Security was supposedly affluent. What work did they want him to do?
The cat may be important--never dismiss facts until they are proven useless. Was there a witness to the cat's death? Did anyone see the car that hit the cat?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 19, 2011 22:22:33 GMT
He says that he didn't speak much about the job, told one or two of his friends that he had an interview but went into no more detail than that. He wasn't given much detail into the apparent job but he was lead to believe it would be something that would require organisational skills and experience with people, so we assume it was something secretarial, similar to his previous work.
No witnesses to the cat's death that have come forward. It appears to have happened in the small hours of the morning, some time between 3 and 6 in the morning. It didn't look like a particularly vicious attack, from what we can tell the cat was hit once and left at the side of the road, so it could easily just have been a nasty accident. They happen. But we know how much you love data, even the stuff that sounds trivial...
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 19, 2011 23:36:03 GMT
It would be a mistake to discard the apparently trivial as cases have balanced on it before.
I assume the phone number from which he was called looked professional? Was he asked to give any credentials concerning his past security experiences or proof that he worked anywhere with security skills?
The siblings must get along or they wouldn't live nearby. Or at the very least, their relationship is a neutral one. What about the professor? What is he professor of, exactly?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 20, 2011 0:31:54 GMT
As we all know, seeing as you never stop reminding us.
It was a pretty unremarkable number, we've tried phoning it since but the number is no longer recognised. He wasn't asked anything much over the phone, but was asked to bring credentials, CV and so on to the interview. It doesn't sound like a professionally run company, even if it was a fake one, but Wells said he didn't think anything was particularly strange at the time, they made it sound very natural.
He says that he gets along with his sister very well, they meet up fairly regularly for coffee. The fiance is a professor of latin and classics, specialising in literature and architecture, and he checks out clean. One incident of DUI two years ago, but other than that no criminal history.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 20, 2011 1:31:06 GMT
I wouldn't keep reminding you if you didn't seem to need reminding.
No good con would be successful if it didn't sound natural.
*quietly, almost to himself*
Why would they ask him to bring his CV if the address was bogus?
*louder, while checking his BlackBerry*
And the fiance shows no signs of animosity toward the victim?
Were there cameras in the area where someone could have gotten a good look at the CV or studied his behaviour? Does he have any reason why someone would want to impersonate him?
*looks up from phone, raises an eyebrow*
Or kill him, perhaps? Any connections to the Russians?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 20, 2011 16:37:45 GMT
We all have our methods, Sherlock, and mine work fine for my purposes.
The fiance shows no signs of animosity towards Wells but Wells sometimes... antagonises the fiance. It's nothing really beyond protective brother stuff, but I suppose it could give him a motive. Usually just things like cutting comments and the likes.
There were a few cameras about, none that would have been clear enough to see his CV but they could easily study his behaviour from the videos.
He claims not to have any enemies or any reason to be impersonated. He has a rather rich father but only to the extent of half a million plus a fair amount in property, and that's not generally enough to provoke identity theft.
No connection to Russians. He took a trip there once when he was 16 with a history class at school for a fortnight but nothing of any interest happened there.
He came to us today and told us about an ex-girlfriend that he thinks could be involved. He hadn't mentioned it previously because he was embarrassed, but they parted on bad terms some time ago when she caught him cheating. I'm sure you think vengeful exes are boring and irrelevant but she could be something to do with it.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 20, 2011 17:59:35 GMT
Boring, yes, irrelevant, no. Many crimes have been committed by people wanting revenge. Admittedly this is a strange sort of revenge as nothing but the cat and Mr. Wells's social life seem to have been hurt.
You're quite positive there's no chance he could have upset the Russian mob? Or that his vengeful ex-girlfriend has any connection to them?
Was there anything of importance near his house that an illegal operation would be interested in? Nothing that he would normally be at home to prevent--particularly on the day of his "interview"?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 20, 2011 18:14:35 GMT
Well, nothing but the cat and Mr Well's social life have been hurt so far, that's not to say nothing more is going to happen. Or if it was a revenge situation, they could be trying to undermine him rather than hurt him outright.
We're fairly certain there's no connection to the mob, but then, you're usually the one that spots details the rest of us miss. The vengeful ex girlfriend travels a lot and has spent a fair amount of time in eastern Europe so she may have some connection. We've interviewed her neighbours and they say that she has had a few strange, male, visitors over the past few months. Could be that she's just a call girl- we've been unable to track down any of the men as we've nothing to go on so they could be Russian mobsters for all we know.
There's a new set of telephone poles going up that pass directly by Wells' home; someone could have wanted him out the way if they were doing anything strange with them. I'll get some men out right away to check the poles and CCTV footage that might show strange activity when they went up.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 20, 2011 18:49:39 GMT
*smiles at the compliment*
Call girls usually go to the clients, not the other way around. Usually the same with cheating spouses.
Going by father, at any rate.
Was it ever the same man twice? Did multiple men enter her house at once? Is there anyone else living at that residence who the men may have gone there to see?
I suggest you check those phone lines for wiretaps--probably the most obvious and likely method of tampering. Do those lines by any chance connect to his own house?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 22, 2011 0:59:57 GMT
Usually, but not always.
It's hard to be sure but some of the neighbours reckon there might be a group of men returning, one with a distinctively imposing stature- about six foot five and 325 pounds- and one with an unusual shade of red hair, but other than that they wouldn't like to swear to anything. It's never been multiple men, always one at a time. They all say that the men only visit her, so unless all of the neighbours are lying then it seems pretty certain that the visits are all intended for her.
We've checked the lines (they are connected directly to his own house) and there's no wiretaps; but there is a strange coating over the wires in the lines. They've been sent to the lab for analysis- we've not seen anything like this before- but it appears to be a metallic substance suspended in some gelatinous matter.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Nov 22, 2011 14:28:42 GMT
Hm. Interesting. Let's wait for the analysis on that.
Did any of the neighbors get any photographs of any of the men? Even by accident; tracing them would be an important--and I'd have thought a rather obvious--step.
What's her address? I may have to visit.
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Nov 28, 2011 21:32:48 GMT
Alright, we got the results back on the wire coating: it's a combination of a few elements, but mostly lead, and the gelatinous matter is just a sticky jelly to allow it to stick to the wires. We haven't seen anything like it before, but it appears to block a certain degree of power from the wires. Because they're connected to a generator it's never going to drain power completely but it's enough to cause difficulty in using the phone, frequent loss of contact and so on, and if there's a power cut it would be difficult to get power running through it again.
Obviously we've removed the substance from the wires but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned up again. We've sent you a sample of it in case you want to do your own research with it.
That's a criminal act, destroying public property like that, so now it's a legal matter- if you solve this one then we'd be in your debt. And in any case it definitely proves that something suspicious is going on if they're trying to cut off his communication.
We spoke to the neighbours and none of them have any pictures, but most of them offered to try and get photos when any of the men next visit, so I'll let you know when that happens and send you copies. Obviously we'll be tracing them to the best of our abilities, but I know how it upsets you when you feel excluded.
She lives in the ground floor flat in the block on Brook Drive. She's pretty paranoid and untrusting so, much though it pains me to suggest this, you might be better off telling her you're with the police force. Use the ID cards you keep nicking off me if you have to.
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Sherlock Holmes
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Post by Sherlock Holmes on Dec 3, 2011 20:23:38 GMT
So he did notice I've been pickpocketing him. There's hope yet for the police.
Why would anyone want to drain the power to the phones in the area? What other buildings does that line service? Anything of vital importance like an emergency dispatch or other government office? Seems a bit far-fetched for the fiancee to have orchestrated it, but not an impossibility--perhaps she went to extreme measures to keep him from calling and interrupting?
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Post by Greg Lestrade on Dec 4, 2011 12:37:44 GMT
Of course I noticed, believe it or not I am not so monumentally stupid that I can't notice someone nicking my ID a few times a month.
I've no idea why anyone would want to drain power from the area- the lines mostly serve residential areas, a few shops (just corner shops and newsagents), and a small library. But no, nothing of vital importance. The fiancee has a degree in engineering so it isn't impossible that she'd have the knowledge to do this, but obviously it's a LOT of effort if she's doing it just to freak out someone that's occasionally rude to her. I suppose she couldn't be trying to keep him from calling and interrupting, but like you said, it's a lot of effort.
In other news, this morning one of the neighbours phoned up and said she's got a photo of one of the visitors. We got her in with it, and we'll be sending you a copy shortly. As you'll see, this man is quite short, looks to be about 5'6, has artificially dark hair with a receding hairline. It looks like there's some kind of birthmark on his neck, about the size of a two pound coin, and is very well dressed in a grey wool suit.
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