Theft and Burglary Investigations
Burglaries are the silent dread of everyone who has a lock on his or her door.Burglary can take many forms and the investigation of burglaries requiresattention to detail. Analyze both of the burglary cases below andaddress the corresponding questions for one of them.
- A 54-year-old woman was arrested outside of a businessafter a silent alarm went off, alerting an officer in the area. Theofficer found her prying at a side door using a crowbar.
- What should the primary investigation consist of?
- Should the officers/investigators handle thisdifferently than a typical burglary case due to the sex and age of theperpetrator? Why or why not?
- What actions would you take as an investigator? Why?
- There have been a series of thefts of expensiveconvertibles in the community. The thefts are occurring during the day. Nowitnesses or victims have any suspect information. In one case, the ownerunknowingly observed his car being driven away, but did not realize it washis own convertible until he reached his garage to find it gone. None ofthe cars have been recovered. Cars are not stolen on days when there issnow on the ground. At one scene, officers found some type of debris thatwas consistent with parts of a convertible top.
- What actions would you take as an investigator? Why?
