Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 287 Supermarket Theft Case

As evening fell, a light snow began to fall from the sky, drifting gently down. With the Spring Festival approaching, the usually bustling city became much quieter.

However, the police station remained busy without taking a break.

Having just returned to his office after a long day of meetings, Chen Shu stood on the steps of the courtyard and naturally thought of the song, "The First Snow of 2002".

Community police officer Yu Yu walked over, smiling, and said, "Chief Chen, your position as deputy chief, substituting for a police officer, combining the duty officer and the shift leader into one, is unique in our branch. Brilliant!"

When Chen Shu was still a police officer, he and Yu Yu got along quite well, and now they chatted very casually.

Chen Shu took a bite and said helplessly, "You know our station is short-staffed. Last time we worked through several nights in a row on a case, so we need to give people a few days to rest and catch their breath."

Yu Yu said in a low voice, "I'm just afraid something will happen. If anything goes wrong, you'll be the one who bears all the responsibility."

Chen Shu shrugged, neither confirming nor denying the question.

Yu Yu suddenly chuckled, suppressing a laugh, and said, "But with your security team pulling this stunt, our community's Chief Wu is in for a rough time. Let's see how he'll have the nerve to make us work overtime from now on!"

Chen Shu was taken aback, not having considered his colleague's feelings, but then he understood: "Hehe, it's like you're working overtime in your community."

"An emergency call has been made, please respond!"

"An emergency call has been made, please respond!"

An electronic voice came from the front desk, and Yu Yu joked, "Chief Chen, it's your turn to go out on a call."

After handling the drug manufacturing and trafficking case involving Boss Luo and others, Chen Shu gave the security team a week's leave. During this time, the daytime security incidents were handled by Lao Ding, a veteran member of the security team who was no longer handling cases, while the evenings were taken over by Chen Shu after finishing his daytime administrative duties.

Chen Shu gave him a light kick and laughed, "I'll take him back to the station and give you a night of mediation!"

The atmosphere was relaxed; clearly, the approaching year-end mood allowed the police officers at the station, who had been busy all year, to relax a little.

"Officer, the thief is in the office."

Upon arrival, the supermarket manager, who had been waiting at the entrance, led Chen Shu and his group to a small office in the corner. It was more of a slightly larger changing room than an office, containing two rows of metal lockers with doors for employees to store their personal belongings, and a dilapidated desk outside.

At this moment, a middle-aged woman, probably in her forties, dressed in old but clean clothes, sat in a chair next to the desk, her expression blank. She neither spoke nor moved, just sitting there blankly.

A chubby supermarket employee stood beside her, and a well-packaged calculator sat on the table.

Chen Shu walked over, picked up the calculator, and weighed it in her hand. She realized it was a Casio scientific calculator that cost several hundred yuan, and it was obviously not something someone like her could use.

"You took it?"

After all, she was a woman, and it wasn't a big mistake, so Chen Shu tried to keep his tone casual and his words less sensitive.

The woman looked up and saw the police had really arrived. She couldn't hold back any longer; she slid off her chair, knelt on the floor, covered her face, and burst into tears. "Waaah... Officers, boss, please, please... Waaah... I'll never do it again, I really won't... Waaah..."

Chen Shu had seen plenty of people like this who resort to shamelessness when things go wrong. Holding his calculator, he turned to the manager and asked, "How many times has this happened?"

The manager thought for a moment: "This is the first time I've been caught. I don't know if I've stolen here before."

"No no!"

The woman who had been kneeling on the ground crying immediately crawled over, pulling on her knees, and grabbed the manager's trouser leg, crying, "Boss, this is really my first time, it's really my first time! My child needs it for this exam, I have no choice!"

The manager, somewhat disgusted by the snot on the woman's hands, forcefully pulled his leg back to break free, and said with revulsion, "Whose money isn't money? Don't try to use a child as a pretext! Didn't you think about going to jail when you stole? Now you're scared? Go tell the police yourself!"

Upon hearing this, the woman turned around and kowtowed repeatedly to Chen Shu, the sound of her head hitting the ground quite loudly. After a long while, she sat up and choked out:
"Officer, my husband is paralyzed at home and can't work. Our child is in high school, and we rely solely on me doing odd jobs to make ends meet. If I go to jail, our child won't be able to continue her studies, and her life will be ruined! My poor child... If it weren't for our child, I would have jumped off a building with her father. We have such a miserable life, sob sob sob."

Zhu Chaoran, who was standing nearby, couldn't stand it and went over to help the woman to a chair.

Chen Shu asked, "Manager, do you have any security cameras here? I'd like to take a look."

The manager took Chen Shu to the adjacent server room and showed him the surveillance footage from that time.

After entering the supermarket, the middle-aged woman went straight to the school supplies section, clearly familiar with the area, and probably prepared to steal today.

Once they arrived, the woman slowed down. She squatted down beside the shelves, checking each model one by one, picking and choosing, and finally stuffed a calculator into her clothes.

Chen Shu held the calculator in his hand, still having some questions. He had also come from a high school, and his grades were just good enough to get into a top-tier university, so he knew what kind of calculator high school students should use.

Clearly, the calculator in her hand did not meet the standards for the college entrance examination, and no student would use a non-compliant calculator in their daily studies. However, judging from the middle-aged woman's picky movements while stealing, she was probably looking for a suitable model.

The reasoning told him that the middle-aged woman was lying, but his years of experience as a police officer in identifying people were frantically trying to convince him otherwise.

The manager, who was also watching the surveillance footage nearby, angrily complained, "Officer, it's really not easy for us to run a shop. We were doing inventory the other day, and over three thousand yuan worth of goods have been stolen in just one month! Ugh! The boss is practically yelling at me to death! We've finally caught someone this time, you absolutely have to lock this woman up for a few days!"

After thinking for a moment, Chen Shu decided to take the person back to the station first.

To make it easier for him to get back, the manager drove himself to the police station, while the middle-aged woman naturally went back with Chen Shu in the police car.

Before getting into the car, Zhu Chaoran secretly pulled Chen Shu aside and whispered, "Brother Shu, I've asked around, and this woman's family is really in dire straits. She's probably not lying. Why don't we just let her go?"

The fat man didn't understand; how could a case with victims be simply dropped?

Chen Shu smiled and patted the innocent and kind-hearted Zhu Chaoran on the shoulder: "Fatty, don't worry, your brother Shu knows what he's doing."

(End of this chapter)