Brain Teasers
Kabob Thefts
Detective Frederick F. Fredinstein was called in to investigate a rash of stolen kabobs. The investigative team theorized that there might be a Bobsylvanian gang behind it, but couldn't prove it.
The team has been tracking several key members of the gang for weeks, but can't place any of the members at the same place at the same time. The only thing that they know for certain is that all of the members get their sheets cleaned at the same place: Checkers Bobsylvanian Sheet Dry Cleaners.
The team thought that the plans for the kabob heists must be at the cleaners, but when the team served a search warrant, they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. After all, everyone knows that what a Bobsylvanian likes best, after kabobs of course, is nice, clean sheets.
When Detective Fredinstein came in on the case, the first thing that he did was to meet with the lead investigator, Miss Sissy. She showed him the report on the search of the dry cleaners. The report detailed everything that they didn't find.
"As you can see from the report, Fred," said Miss Sissy, "there was nothing out of the ordinary: hangers, laundry bags, chemicals, detergents, boxes for shirts, a couple of big tubs of water, bill pads, account books, and a bunch of other stuff you'd see in a normal business." She concluded, "There wasn't even an above normal amount of cash on hand. If this were the headquarters of a kabob theft ring, we should have found something."
Fred looked pensive for a moment. "There wasn't even a shish stick to be found, huh?"
Miss Sissy replied directly, "Not even a toothpick."
After looking over the report again and thinking for about a minute, the detective said, "Well, we better take the wagon and a few units over to the cleaners. We'll want to stash them someplace where they won't be seen though. Put a couple of plainclothes out front and have them arrest everyone coming out of the place on suspicion of being involved in the largest stolen kabob ring in history. And make sure that all of their dry cleaning is confiscated."
Miss Sissy looked shocked. "How do you know they're up to something, Fred?"
The team has been tracking several key members of the gang for weeks, but can't place any of the members at the same place at the same time. The only thing that they know for certain is that all of the members get their sheets cleaned at the same place: Checkers Bobsylvanian Sheet Dry Cleaners.
The team thought that the plans for the kabob heists must be at the cleaners, but when the team served a search warrant, they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. After all, everyone knows that what a Bobsylvanian likes best, after kabobs of course, is nice, clean sheets.
When Detective Fredinstein came in on the case, the first thing that he did was to meet with the lead investigator, Miss Sissy. She showed him the report on the search of the dry cleaners. The report detailed everything that they didn't find.
"As you can see from the report, Fred," said Miss Sissy, "there was nothing out of the ordinary: hangers, laundry bags, chemicals, detergents, boxes for shirts, a couple of big tubs of water, bill pads, account books, and a bunch of other stuff you'd see in a normal business." She concluded, "There wasn't even an above normal amount of cash on hand. If this were the headquarters of a kabob theft ring, we should have found something."
Fred looked pensive for a moment. "There wasn't even a shish stick to be found, huh?"
Miss Sissy replied directly, "Not even a toothpick."
After looking over the report again and thinking for about a minute, the detective said, "Well, we better take the wagon and a few units over to the cleaners. We'll want to stash them someplace where they won't be seen though. Put a couple of plainclothes out front and have them arrest everyone coming out of the place on suspicion of being involved in the largest stolen kabob ring in history. And make sure that all of their dry cleaning is confiscated."
Miss Sissy looked shocked. "How do you know they're up to something, Fred?"
Answer
After rounding up a dozen suspects, Detective Fredinstein took Miss Sissy into the briefing room. There, he spread out the first sheet onto the floor and turned out the lights. He pulled a hand-held black light from his voluminous coat, turned it on, and played it upon the sheet. As if by magic, the apparently clean sheet revealed dates, times, locations, and dollar amounts. One by one, they checked all of the sheets and all of them revealed similar information. All but one, that is. The last one just revealed a list of names with large dollar amounts next to each name. Detective Fredinstein had the team go out and pick up everyone on the list whom they hadn't already arrested.Detective Fredinstein explained that most liquid laundry detergents on the market today will show up under black light even if they don't appear under visible light. When he saw the water and detergents on the lists of items found at the dry cleaners, he knew that they weren't being used for the cleaning. Being a good detective, and having had loads of dry cleaning done in the past (pun intended), Detective Fredinstein knew that the detergents and water were out of place at a dry cleaners. The process only uses liquid chemicals for the cleaning. The "dry" in dry cleaning refers to that fact that no water is used.
He surmised that they were using the detergent to write the planned heists on the sheets of everyone involved in the kabob ring. The water was used to clean the sheets of the detergent in the case that a mistake was made or the place was raided by the police. Since the suspects were only arrested after they left the cleaners, the person working had no reason to wash away the evidence.
Pictures were taken of the sheets under a black light and were used to convict the guilty parties under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act. None of the stolen kabobs could be recovered, but their owners were able to make more.
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