Burglary in the Ruhr Area, Germany (Case Study)

Most clients of our detective agency in Duisburg contact us because they have a specific, real and provable problem. However, from time to time we also investigate for clients who, in retrospect, turn out to be suffering from a mental disorder such as unfounded fears of persecution, compulsive control behaviour or simply senility. Using such a case, we would like below to illustrate the possibilities of burglary investigation offered by our commercial detective agency in Duisburg and, at the same time, provide an example of somewhat confused clients.

Missing and Moved Objects

The Marl couple from Oberhausen were in their late seventies. For some time, their only son had been worried about his parents’ safety, as they repeatedly complained of burglaries at their home and constantly noticed changes to their belongings – as if someone were deliberately trying to drive them mad. The son was by no means lacking in resourcefulness and had already installed various infrared cameras in and around the house on his own initiative; however, when analysing the footage, he had never been able to identify any sign of the burglars – until suddenly all the cameras failed at once. As he lived and worked in Switzerland, he had no opportunity to check on his parents’ home regularly and therefore commissioned our private detectives in Duisburg. Since not only various items belonging to his parents had disappeared, but also property of the son which he had stored in the attic, he had a dual interest in solving the case.

Detective Searching for Burglary Traces

The first measure taken by our commercial detectives in Duisburg was to secure evidence. The neighbour was said to have recently entered the house via a flowerbed, opened the door with a duplicate key and forced open a document and jewellery cabinet using burglary tools. Although nothing was missing from the cabinet, the order inside had allegedly been completely disturbed and there had also been thefts in the past. Although the previous days had been rather rainy, there were no footprints or shoe prints whatsoever in the flowerbed, nor did the cabinet show any signs of forced entry either on the wood or on or inside the lock. It should be noted that even sophisticated and outwardly inconspicuous lock-opening methods such as lockpicking leave scratch marks on lock cylinders and are therefore detectable.

Next, our detective from Duisburg searched the house for possible entry points for burglars. The lock on the back door was replaced, the front door had recently been fitted by the son with a new security lock and met private requirements for a high level of burglary protection. In the basement there were several smaller tilt windows through which a small, slender person might have been able to gain entry, but not without completely smashing the glass or forcibly removing the frame. As all the windows were intact, this was not an option. The upper floor of the house would at best have been accessible via ladders through tilted windows, yet here too there were no signs of forced entry. Finally, the couple suspected that the burglar or burglars had entered via the attic. Accordingly, the private investigator inspected the attic window on the pitched roof, which could only be reached with the help of a ladder and by walking a short distance along roof beams. Months-old dust lay on these beams; any passage would inevitably have left impressions in this dust, yet the layer showed no irregularities whatsoever. The window itself also displayed no signs of forced entry. Subsequently, the investigator from our private detective agency in Duisburg thoroughly searched the entire attic, pulled out all cupboards in order to look for connections to neighbouring houses and examined every object for traces – nothing.

Sabotaged Camera Surveillance and Futile Observation

Despite the lack of results from the search for traces, the Marl couple insisted that they regularly heard movements in the attic and subsequently noticed changes. For this reason, our commercial investigator installed concealed infrared cameras in the attic and connected them to the mains electricity supply to ensure continuous operation. After a week, during which several incidents had allegedly occurred again according to the Marls, he dismantled the cameras and analysed the recordings. On the very first evening, Mrs Marl appeared on camera, moved a few items around, dusted something off, then – evidently surprised – looked at the power strip to which the cameras were connected, pulled out the plug and the recording ended. Naturally, she had previously been informed by our detective in Duisburg about the purpose of the power strip and that she must not under any circumstances unplug it.

At the next meeting with the operations management of our commercial detective agency in Duisburg, the Marls stated that whenever they left the house, someone tampered with their property. There was not a single occasion, they claimed, on which everything was still as they had left it upon their return. In order to verify this assertion, our investigator agreed with the couple to enter the house secretly at night and wait inside for the burglar once the Marls had left. The security specialist repeated this procedure on four days, without a single person ever appearing in the house.

Bug-Sweeping Specialists and Mantrailer Dogs

The next idea put forward by the couple, supported in argument by their son, was that of listening devices and miniature cameras placed in the flat. How else could it be explained that the burglar or burglars only failed to enter the house on those days when the detective was waiting inside?, the Marls asked. The perpetrators must have been able to observe the living space by optical or visual means. Consequently, our bug-sweeping specialists in Duisburg were deployed promptly and examined all floors and rooms for listening devices such as bugs and cameras concealed in camouflaged containers. The working methods of these nationally recognised counter-surveillance experts ensure an almost one hundred per cent level of accuracy. Nothing was found and, of course, our detective agency in Duisburg had long since suspected that the burglaries were most likely age-related delusions. A cautious attempt to confront the son with this issue failed due to resistance and accusations such as, “You are not capable of catching the burglars and now you want to blame it on my parents’ mental state! They are perfectly fit! Kindly do your job!”

Very well, we thought, there was still one possibility left and, if we were being compelled in this manner to continue what was essentially a hopeless activity, we would not additionally engage in a dispute as to why we were terminating the assignment from our side. After all, it was not the Marls who were paying us, but the demanding and argumentatively inaccessible son, to whom, given his age (early forties), one could hardly attribute senility. So we resorted to one last straw: mantrailer dogs. These highly specialised person-tracking dogs, trained from an early age, are capable of detecting and following human scent trails even weeks and months later. In the past, they have repeatedly assisted us with the utmost effectiveness in solving missing persons cases or identifying anonymous letter writers. If these veritable weapons of detective case investigation found nothing, then there was nothing to be found. A box in the attic served as the scent carrier; Mrs Marl swore blind that it did not belong to the family, had never been touched by any family member and must definitely have been brought there by the burglar. Using this box, the dogs picked up the trail, followed it through the front door to the Marls’ garage, then further through the driveway and to the pharmacy where Mrs Marl had made a purchase that same morning. The tracking of the last person who had touched the said box therefore led directly to Mrs Marl. Further attempts with other scent carriers yielded the same results – either the dogs followed Mrs Marl or her husband. None of the items allegedly most recently touched by the burglar bore fresh scent traces from persons not living in the household.

Extensive Portfolio of Investigative Methods

At this point, much to the annoyance of the unreasonable son, our detective agency in Duisburg finally terminated the investigation. Of course, we could have continued to sit in the empty house for days, weeks or months, listening to nothing, but that would have been pure profiteering, as the detective costs had already exceeded the 5,000-euro mark at that stage. Thus, with a clear conscience, we preferred to listen to the son’s reproaches and allow him to keep his bank balance instead. In the event of a burglary, it is unlikely that any other private or public provider could carry out a more extensive catalogue of measures than our security specialists and detectives in Duisburg did in this case. In detail, once again, a summary of the investigative tactics applied here:

• Search for Traces
• Installation of a New Burglary-Proof Lock
• Video Surveillance of the Living Space
• Observation of the Living Space
• Analysis of the Living Space for Optical and Visual Espionage and Listening Devices
• Search for the Perpetrator by Means of Mantrailing Dogs