Breaking News, Page 2

display shelves, “That’s the sale price for the lap tops and this sign is for the tablet computers,” Garry told Mom, “The cell phones would have been on this end of the display rack”.

  “Wow, that a really good price on those laptops”, I said.

  “We’ve got to sell them that low or we couldn’t compete with the office supply place down the street”, Garry told us, “Too bad the wholesale price almost doubled last month right before we bought them”.

  “Why do you suppose that is,” Mom asked.

  Garry looked around to see who might be listening to our conversation, “I have a friend who works for the distributer”, Garry said in a whisper, “and he told me that both of these models are being put on hold by the manufacturer until December or even as late as January due to a shortage of parts”.

  “So by the end of summer these computers will be in very short supply,” Mom said.

  “Are you kidding,” Garry said, “The distributor was hoping to get them out before Christmas but they are not sure if they can. If we could hold on to them until Thanksgiving we could probably get double maybe even triple, what they are worth. We could really make a killing on them in another couple of months”.

  Mom walked over to where the police officer was talking to the storeowner, Mr. Mike Taylor. Mr. Taylor was telling the officer his version of what happened.

  I decided to look around the store to see what else they had on sale; I promised Mom that I wouldn’t touch anything.

  I looked around the store but I tried to stay close to where Mr. Taylor and the police officer were so I could hear their conversation.

  Mr. Taylor said that he had arrived about an hour earlier than usual to get ready for the big sale; the police officer asked him what time that was. Mr. Taylor seemed annoyed that the officer interrupted his story.

  “It was about 8:30,” he said and continued his story from where he left off. “I parked on one of the side streets and walked to the back door of the store,” He said.

  The police officer interrupted again, “Was that normally how you entered the store,” he asked?

  “I always enter the store from the back door,” he said. “Since it was still dark I didn’t see the broken windows, but I felt the glass crunch under my feet. I grabbed the door knob and the door opened”.

  Was the door closed or partially opened,” the officer asked.

  “The door was closed,” Mr. Taylor said, “When I got inside I turned on the light and looked back out into the alley and saw the broken glass and that is when I looked up at the top of the door and saw that the windows were broken”.

  Mr. Taylor said that he quickly checked the store to see what was missing and called the police, and then the insurance company.

  “Why didn’t the alarm go off when the back door was opened,” the police officer asked Mr. Taylor.

  “I’ve been having trouble with the alarm system,” Mr. Taylor told the officer.

  “Like what?” the officer asked.

  “The thing would turn off for no apparent reason and the battery backup didn’t always turn on when we would lose power,” Mr. Taylor said.

  “Did you report the problems to the alarm company?” the officer asked.

  “I called the Alarm Company yesterday,” Mr. Taylor said, “and they said that they would be here this morning”.

  Almost as if on cue the alarm company sales representative and a technician arrived. Mr. Taylor told Ron, another sales guy, to show them where the alarm box was in the back of the store.

  One of the police officers saw them heading for the back room and stopped them; he told them that they would have to wait until the detective and fingerprint guys got there before they could do any testing of the alarm system.

  Mom asked Mr. Taylor if he could provide her with a list of the items that were stolen; he handed her three invoices.

  “This stuff just came in yesterday afternoon”, he said, “the sales guys, Garry and Ron worked a couple hours after closing to get the boxes unpacked and to get all of the computers stacked on the shelves so that everything would be ready for the big sale today. When they were done, they locked up the store and set the alarm”.

  “So your two sales guys unpacked the computers from their original boxes,” Mom asked.

  “Well sure,” Mr. Taylor said, “I wanted them all out on display so that the customers could see them”.

  “I’m no computer expert,” I said, “But I remember when I got my new laptop the model number and serial number were on the bar code label on the outside of the box. I needed that barcode to get my rebate”.

  Mr. Taylor looked at me with a very surprised look on his face, “So, what’s your point,” he said.

  “The point,” Mom said is that if your sales guys took all of the computers out of their original boxes how were your customers going to carry the computer home and since must companies require the barcode from the box, how where they going to get their rebate?”

  That really caught Mr. Taylor off guard and he stumbled to come up with an answer.

  Mom made some notes into her own tablet computer, Mr. Taylor was straining to see what she was writing, but with no luck.

  He was still trying to come up with an answer to Mom’s question about the boxes and barcodes, but she just continued on.

  “What became of the boxes that the computers were shipped in,” Mom asked.

  He looked around the store as if he expected to find them laying around, “The crooks must have used the boxes to carry out the computers,” he said.

  “These invoices show that there were fifty of those new little tablet computers and fifty of the large screen laptops; is that correct,” Mom asked.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Mr. Taylor said.

  “I just happened to notice that the cell phones on the invoices are the model G-20,” Mom said, “My husband has been looking all over town for them”.

  Mr. Taylor smiled, “we got them in yesterday”, he said, “Those are the phones that came in on the same shipment as the computers. I would like to sell you one for your husband, he added, but they were part of the haul the crooks got away with last night. Most of them were already sold, special orders, you know”.

  “We get top dollar for them”, Garry added, “a whole lot more than they are worth; geeks will pay any price to be one of the first to have the latest toy”.

  Mr. Taylor looked as if he wanted to strangle Garry and just might have if there weren’t so many witnesses around.

  “Your initial report to the insurance company included two boxes of those phones”, Mom said, “But I saw one box on a chair in the back room”.

  “The box in the back,” Mr. Taylor said stumbling for the right answer, “those are from a different order”.

  “Really”, Mom said, “the box indicates that it is box one of two and has the same invoice number as the one on these invoices you've just given me”.

  Mr. Taylor forced a smile, “Oh yeah,” he said, “I’m sorry I was just confused for a minute, I guess the crooks must have been in a hurry and only took one box of the phones”.

  “So you are claiming only one box of phones as being stolen”, Mom asked?

  “Of course”, he said, “You don’t think I would try to cheat the insurance company do you”?

  “I hate to put you through this all over again”, Mom told Mr. Taylor, “But I need to get a statement from you about what you found and when”.

  “I just finished giving the police my statement”, Mr. Taylor said sounding very irritated, “can’t you just get it from them”. He seemed almost angry that Mom wanted him to repeat himself.

  “Of course I can,” Mom said, “and if the insurance company doesn’t agree with something that the officer said and refuses to pay you for your lose I suppose you’ll be fine with that, right?”

  “Well no,” Mr. Taylor said, “I need that money to pay the distributer.”

  “Then I really need to get a statement directly from you”,
she told him, “it isn’t that the insurance company doesn’t trust the ability of the police to take down a statement, but once I submit my report it is very difficult to make changes which of course will cause additional delays in you receiving payment”.

  I know Mom heard everything that the police officer asked as well as Mr. Taylor’s answers. She asked the exact same questions and Mr. Taylor gave the exact same answers, almost word for word.

  You might think he had rehearsed the whole thing, “I’m sorry there goes my suspicious mind acting up again”,

  Mom asked if there were any lights left on after the store was closed up at night.

  Mr. Taylor told her that about a third of the lights are left on to help discourage burglars but that obviously didn’t work.

  “You said that you arrived at the store at about 8:30 this morning, is that right?” Mom asked.

  “Yeah,” Mr. Taylor said, “I got here about an hour early to makes sure everything was ready for the big sale”.

  “According to the initial insurance report, you didn’t call the insurance company until almost ten o’clock, just why was that Mr. Taylor?” Mom asked.

  Mr. Taylor looked around the store as if he thought he would find the answer on one of the shelves.

  “Well it took a while to check the store and see what was missing,” He said.

  “The time on the police report is 8:45,” Mom said, “You seemed sure enough about a robbery to call the police and report the computers and phones missing, but it took over an hour to notify the insurance company, why was that?”

  Mr. Taylor looked around the store again, but