I'm not a genius detective

Chapter 17 The Vanishing Metal

When Zhu Yue asked the question, the boss did not answer immediately, but led the men into the warehouse.

During this time, Han Ling found out about the surveillance cameras outside the scrap metal recycling station, which numbered three.

There's one at the gate of the purchasing station, one at the entrance of the office, and one at the entrance of the warehouse.

In this day and age, the cost of installing surveillance cameras is still relatively high, and small and medium-sized businesses do not have a strong sense of security. The fact that a recycling station owner can install three cameras on the outside is already considered a very cautious businessperson.

Stepping into the warehouse, Han Ling quickly glanced around and found no surveillance cameras.

The boss closed the door and turned on the lights before saying, "I've suspected it, and I've checked the surveillance footage day and night, but everything is normal. It's worth five or six thousand yuan worth of goods; if someone were to steal it, they would definitely notice."

"Officer, isn't this weird? Could the ledger really be wrong? Or is it haunted?"

Zhu Yue listened to his boss while checking the warehouse.

The other party is right.

Five or six thousand yuan may not sound like a lot, but it depends on the specific item. If it's gold, it's only about thirty grams, which you can carry around. But if it's scrap, then it will definitely be heavy and bulky, and it's impossible to take it out silently while it's under surveillance.

"Is all the metal here?" Zhu Yue asked.

Looking around, the warehouse was filled with small pieces of scrap, including some valuable metals such as iron pots, wires, aluminum cans, and old faucets.

The boss immediately took them to the warehouse, indicating that the items were likely all missing from the warehouse.

“Yes.” The boss nodded. “Most of the metal is stored in the warehouse. The copper wire was dumped here. See that empty space over there? Next to the plastic bucket, there used to be bundles of copper wire, weighing several dozen kilograms.”

Zhu Yue glanced over there, then looked around and said, "There are no security cameras."

Boss: "There are no security cameras. There's only one main entrance to the warehouse, so I only installed one at the entrance. Security cameras are expensive."

Zhu Yue nodded slightly.

The boss's idea wasn't wrong; he wasn't just trying to save money. Theoretically, installing a security camera at the entrance would be enough, since there weren't any valuables in the warehouse anyway.

It's impossible to secretly carry it out on your person; no one would steal just one aluminum can or one faucet every day.

Putting aside whether anyone could actually do it, the amounts don't match up.

That's five or six thousand yuan; you can't earn that much just by stealing things every day.

"Boss, you only suspected theft when you discovered that the goods you received and the goods you sold didn't match up, right?" It was Han Ling who spoke.

The boss looked over and said, "Yes."

Han Ling said she understood.

For those scrap materials, the scrap yard is just a transit point; they will eventually go to other places.

For example, the collected metals are sold to metal recycling companies and metal processing plants, the plastics are sold to plastic pellet plants and plastic manufacturers, and the cardboard boxes and waste paper are sold to paper mills, and so on.

There are ledgers for every inflow and outflow, and the weights must match.

There must have been some errors due to certain reasons, but they shouldn't be that large. Therefore, the boss's suspicion is completely reasonable; there must be something wrong here.

"Anyway, there are only four people. We can check them one by one."

After Zhu Yue finished speaking, he started walking around the warehouse, occasionally rummaging through the mountains of scrap.

"Four people?" The boss was stunned.

Han Ling explained in one sentence: "A large amount of scrap metal has gone missing, and the surveillance cameras didn't capture any suspicious strangers. If there really was a theft, it could only have been done by an employee."

Is it possible for surveillance to experience advanced malfunctions? Yes, but in 2009, when network connectivity was not yet widespread, it was impossible.

Currently, private surveillance systems all use local storage, making it impossible for outsiders to tamper with them.

The boss said "Oh," frowned and pondered, probably mentally selecting the most suspicious person.

“No…that’s not right.” After a while, he realized, “Even if it was an employee, it’s impossible for them to secretly move so much metal. The surveillance cameras could have captured it.” Zhu Yue was still wandering around when his voice came: “So, we’re here now, aren’t we? By turning the impossible into possible, we’ll know who the thief is.”

Upon hearing this, the boss forced an awkward smile. He couldn't figure it out and could only leave it to the police to handle, leaving professional matters to professionals.

After inspecting the entire warehouse, Zhu Yue stood still, turned around, and asked, "Anyone can usually enter the warehouse, right?"

The boss nodded: "Yes, all of them can come in. Some of the collected waste needs to be moved in."

Zhu Yue: "What happens after you get off work in the evening? Do you lock the door?"

Boss: "I won't lock it. I'll only lock the main gate. The main gate has a security lock with a deadbolt. If I can open the main gate, the warehouse won't matter."

Zhu Yue understood what the other party meant.

He had just noticed that the warehouse could only be secured with pin tumbler locks, which was not very secure. If someone with malicious intent broke through the gate, the warehouse would be rendered useless, and it would make no difference whether it was locked or not, so why bother?

Climbing over the wall is impractical; it's covered with glass shards fixed in cement, and large pieces of debris are difficult to move.

"Are you the one in charge of selling the metal?" Zhu Yue asked again.

The boss said, "Yes, I go to the metal processing plant several times a month. I'm in charge of it myself."

Zhu Yue: "Is there something wrong with your scale?"

If the weight is incorrect during the purchase, it may not match the final accounts. For example, the purchasing station may have purchased it as 10 jin (5 kg), but the actual weight is only 8 jin (4 catties).

Of course, this possibility is very small. It would be good enough if the boss, as the buyer, didn't deliberately try to undervalue the goods during the acquisition.

"No, no, of course not, how could that be?" the boss immediately denied.

Upon learning this, Zhu Yue frowned slightly.

The monitoring did not detect anything unusual, but it was really strange that a large amount of metal had disappeared from the purchasing station over the past year.

It was supposed to weigh 10 jin when it was bought, but it ended up weighing only 8 jin when it was sold to the metal processing plant. Where did the missing 2 jin go?

How did you do it?
The truth may be simple, but more clues are needed to make a judgment. We've only just arrived, so there's no rush.

"Only the metal doesn't match, right? Everything else is fine?" Han Ling asked at this moment.

The boss replied, "Yes, only the metal doesn't match. Metal is expensive."

Han Ling nodded in agreement. Metal is small in size but expensive, making it the best choice.

We can now be fairly certain of three things.

First, the metal in the purchasing station's warehouse has decreased.

Second, no abnormalities were detected during monitoring.

Third, it was done by internal employees.

The question is, how did the employees manage to do that? And with four employees at the purchasing station, it would have been easy to be discovered unless they were working together.

Han Ling's gaze wandered through the warehouse, putting herself in the suspect's shoes and thinking about the problem from the opposite perspective.

If I were a thief, how could I steal metal worth over five thousand yuan over a year right under my boss's nose, and make it look like nothing amiss on the security camera?

Is it possible? Not really, there's only one way: pass off the real thing as the real thing.

"Boss, are you personally in charge of metal sales?" Han Ling asked.

The boss looked at Han Ling: "Yes, I already answered that."

Han Ling: "You should only be responsible for the sale of metals, right? You've delegated the sale of other scrap to your employees, and they're the ones you trust quite a bit."

"Yes." The boss nodded subconsciously, then suddenly felt something was off: "Huh? How did you know?"

(End of this chapter)