Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 53 Trouble

"Wow! So cute!"

When the five children arrived at the police station, the first thing they saw was the three kittens.

Forgetting all about the boring police station visit, the five little ones excitedly started playing with the kitten. The little tabby cat, in particular, wasn't afraid of people at all, and readily exposed its belly to the children, which made Hu Miao and Zhang Yining scream with excitement.

Nie Zhuangzhuang and Zheng Jiacheng chased the snow-clawed tabby kitten in the yard. They couldn't let the kitten not let them touch it; they had to catch it no matter what.

On the other side, Hu Lijun met Zhang Yong, who had also returned from working overtime.

"Didn't find them?"

Raising an eyebrow, Hu Lijun said incredulously, "Don't we have the exact address and phone number? Plus the phone records I took from this kid's phone, how could we let you make a wasted trip?"

Zhang Yong shook his head, quite annoyed, and said, "That guy is more cunning than we thought. Both the delivery address and the phone number were fake! You know how complicated urban villages are. Anyway, this trip was a waste of time, what bad luck!"

Annoyed, Zhang Yong reached out to grab Lin Ge's cat head, but Lin Ge nimbly dodged and jumped onto the air conditioner unit to continue listening to their conversation.

Hu Lijun glanced at Lin Ge, then sighed, "What did the community say? They don't supervise outsiders?"

"Hehe... That grid worker is a complete idiot who knows nothing. I heard she only got the job because of her parents' connections. Apparently, she just hides in the office enjoying the air conditioning and does all the work by sending WeChat messages. She never cares about the actual situation in the grid. When I asked her, she didn't even know how many rental properties there were in the grid! As for tenant registration, forget about it. She just copies and sends the message once a day and then ignores it."

Zhang Yong grew angrier as he spoke, glaring at Hu Lijun and saying, "Brother Hu, you usually deal with the community, do you only encounter these kinds of scoundrels?"

Hu Lijun laughed, "Hey! It's not like they don't do anything. Some of the young women are quite proactive. Besides, their salaries aren't high, so don't expect too much. People who do this job are either extremely ambitious or just coasting along. Try to understand."

Zhang Yong was also helpless and could only take out a cigarette to calm himself down.

To be honest, how many people are there in a police station? They have to manage public order and handle trivial matters, so they are always short-staffed.

Generally speaking, for a police station to get things done, it must coordinate and cooperate well with the community; only then can it achieve twice the result with half the effort. However, if it encounters a good community, that's fine, but if it encounters an incompetent one...

"So what do we do now? According to the intelligence we have, this gang of thieves is no small fry."

Zhang Yong was a little worried. Did he have to hand the case over to his superiors again, turning the police station into a tool that only ran errands?

The two cases mentioned earlier were forced to be transferred to the Public Security Bureau because of the nature of the cases, which everyone understood and had nothing to say.

But if even a petty thief has to ask for help from higher authorities, where will the Zhanghe Police Station's reputation be?
Where is Director Nie?

Hu Lijun asked, and Lin Ge was also curious: why would Nie Guoqiang give up participating in such a case?

Zhang Yong waved his hand: "They went to the post office to see if they could find any clues or patterns about how this group moved the stolen goods. But I don't think the chances are high. After all, we all know that when you send something to a courier station, unless you insure it or specify it, they usually just write 'clothing' on the waybill. Nowadays, there are more and more courier companies, and the management loopholes are getting bigger and bigger. It's wishful thinking to expect them to help us."

Hu Lijun nodded.

Lin Ge seemed to understand something, and realized that what Zhang Yong said was true.

Unless it's contraband or something else prohibited from being transported, courier stations won't care where items like electronics or clothing come from, and their throughput isn't sufficient to help the police conduct precise surveillance.

With the development of second-hand websites like Xianyu, expecting courier stations to help distinguish between stolen goods and second-hand items is indeed asking too much.

He's already done a good job by helping the police stop the transport of drugs and contraband. Nie Guoqiang's attempt to find clues about the ringleader through express delivery records is probably like finding a needle in a haystack.

Speak of the devil, and he appears; not long after, Nie Guoqiang returned to the police station.

He wasn't surprised to see his chubby son. He simply ordered the kids to do their homework in his office, and then took Zhang Yong and Hu Lijun to the smoking area next door.

Seeing Lin Ge approach, Nie Guoqiang ignored him, took the cigarette pack from Zhang Yong, gave them both, and stuffed the pack into his pocket: "Zhang Yong, pack your things when you get back, you're going on a field mission. The Xiangju Island case has been closed by the Liuzhou police, who caught two big fish. The Hucheng police followed suit, catching the people who were tailing them on the highway. Tomorrow you'll go to Liuzhou with your colleagues from the Municipal Bureau to help escort those two back."

"The municipal bureau is short-staffed? They actually need to bring in reinforcements from the local police station."

Zhang Yong nodded in agreement, then asked curiously, "It's only been a few days, how come you've already closed the net? I remember you were saying just a couple of days ago that some of the suspects hadn't been found yet?"

"The Liuzhou police intercepted the two men on the plane."

Nie Guoqiang shook his head and said helplessly, "Flying to Hong Kong, they'll most likely have to find a way to leave the country. I don't know where they got their ID documents, they actually managed to fool the airport inspection. The Liuzhou authorities had no choice but to take action."

Zhang Yong nodded, understanding the predicament of the Liuzhou police.

After all, they are two big fish, far more important than a few small fry. If we continue to monitor them covertly, who can guarantee they won't disappear instantly once they arrive in Hong Kong? The situation there is different from the mainland; many areas still lack control.

As for secretly controlling those two, that's something that only happens in movies.

What era are we living in? Who doesn't have a cell phone?

So, although it was frustrating, Lin Ge understood that this was the only option. As for apprehending the other suspects, they could only rely on time and the assistance of the Skynet system, gradually bringing them to the brink of extinction.

The same logic applies to Hucheng: arrest the people who need to be arrested first, and then maximize the gains.

Based on the conversation between Nie Guoqiang and Zhang Yong, Lin Ge learned that the target being monitored by the people in Hucheng was actually a group planning to travel directly to the southwestern border. In other words, both groups were plotting to smuggle people across the border, and it was indeed necessary to catch them.

This left Lin Ge somewhat frustrated.

From their conversation, Lin Ge learned that Zhao Liang was not among the suspects already apprehended. This guy was one of the few scoundrels who successfully escaped the police's notice, thwarting Lin Ge's desire for revenge.

The three were still talking, but soon shifted the topic to the theft.

Zhang Yong sighed and said with a headache, "What's going on lately? Big cases keep popping up in Zhangzhou. Are we being targeted by those bastards or are they underestimating us?"
Damn, just thinking about it gives me a headache. This is just too outrageous! What's even more disheartening is that so far, only fourteen people have reported lost phones, ten of which were suspected thefts rather than actual losses. If it weren't for this stroke of luck, who would have thought that a gang of thieves had actually set foot in Zhangzhou City?

"If we can't find the stolen goods quickly, and they manage to move them, we won't even be able to gather enough evidence to submit to the prosecutor's office. That's how troublesome theft cases are; finding witnesses and evidence is a real headache."

Hu Lijun was also frowning.

Why have traditional thieves persisted for thousands of years? Firstly, the charges are not serious enough to warrant severe punishment, and secondly, collecting evidence is extremely difficult.

Even if caught red-handed, it doesn't prove whether he committed the crime before. And even with a confession, where can you find victims and stolen goods as evidence?

Selling stolen goods is easy, and victims often don't even report it to the police, or assume they just lost it by accident. Unless the thief steals something extremely valuable, or the theft escalates into robbery, getting them imprisoned is no easy feat.

However, we can't just ignore it.

(End of this chapter)