Background
Whilst 2018 ended with the successful identification of a thief in a test conducted in our Birmingham office, 2019 started on a sadder note.
Birmingham people are known for their big hearts, and the tests we conducted in the first week of January were paid for by friends and neighbours of our client.
Our client was a single mother of two children under the age of 8. Her family had gathered together for the Christmas celebrations with members travelling from Coventry, Hull, and Liverpool to celebrate at their parents’ home in Harborne. Over the years, the sons, daughters, and associated relatives had moved away from the Stechford original family home but they had always kept up with the tradition of meeting up over Christmas.
The Burglary
At 6pm on Christmas Eve, our client locked her home and walked with her children less than 20 meters to her parents’ home to join the family festivities. The evening apparently always started the same, with the adults discussing the year’s results for their beloved City Football team.
During the discussion, the client left to return to her house to collect a City scarf, exchanging friendly football-related insults with three neighbours, all of whom were supporters of the other team, Aston Villa, as she returned to the party.
Two hours later, she again returned home, this time with her children, only to find that her home had been burgled. The heartless offenders had torn open all of the children’s Christmas presents and even trodden on several presents, smashing the contents as they searched for something to steal.
Even a signed photograph of the City idol, Trevor Francis, hanging on the wall in the hallway had been smashed.
The Suspicions
Rumours in the tight-knit neighbourhood soon pointed the finger at the three who had exchanged the friendly football insults earlier in the evening as being the only ones who would know that the Birmingham client’s home was unoccupied that evening.
Some in the local community challenged the men, all of whom denied any involvement and agreed to take a lie detector test to prove their innocence, but at the same time declined to pay for the privilege.
The Tests
We subsequently conducted a lie detector test on each of the suspects, and at least from their point of view, it was worth it, as all three men clearly passed the examinations.
Outcome
The client was clearly disappointed in the results but accepted them with dignity. This position was to pay dividends some days later when she was informed by the police that a suspect, unconnected to the examinees, had been arrested committing a burglary in a nearby street who had admitted the burglary at her home.
The day after our test, Santa caught up with the client’s children when, late in the evening, he posted an envelope containing £200 of gift vouchers for a local children’s toy store.
