Crime stories an almost perfect man

David Campbell, General Agent of the Silver Star Insurance company, resident of the London Borough of Chelsea, planned carefully. He began with sending his wife Linda and his twin daughters Rita und Shelly to the countryside. It was a Friday evening. On Saturday evening he took the last 150 pounds from the office safe and left the house. As Campbell came back from the horse races at 6 o’clock in the evening, the money had been used for betting. In one word: David Campbell was bankrupt. His passion for betting had ruined him. Undisturbed he began to develop the second part of his plan in this case: With the help of a carefully measured amount of dynamite, he blew open the safe in his office. Then he emptied the contents of several containers such as drawers, cupboards and compartments onto the floor. He pulled the telephone from the connection box and pulled all 25 folders out of the bookcase.

As it became dark outside, he pulled on a pair of Wellington boots which he had prepared. They were three sizes too large and had deep indents in the professional boot soles. He put out all of the lights in the house and entered the garden. For five minutes he busied himself with leaving enough tracks before he put out a window in the kitchen door and then trampled through the house in his dirty Wellington boots. The trail led through the hallway and into the office which had already been wrecked and he made sure to leave enough dirt and foot prints. He went back the way he came, pulled the boots off outside and then entered the house in his socks. With a sharp knife, he cut the boots into little pieces and flushed them down the toilet. At 23.00 he went upstairs to the first floor, pulled his pyjamas on and laid himself in bed. He got up again, took a pistol from his bedside table and went down into the hallway barefoot. He fired three times up at the stairs. 120 seconds later he shot twice from the stairs sown into the hallway. It was now 23.08. David Campbell began to hope that his neighbours had good ears. He smeared his face with some Vaseline in the bathroom and splashed himself with water. He even splashed the front and back of his pyjamas with water. At 12.17 he heard the police car sirens. Then 3 officers stormed into the house through the kitchen door. At 23.35, Detective Sergeant Newton himself arrived on the scene and a shaking and “sweat bathed” David Campbell made a statement:

„I can’t really tell you much. I was woken by a dull thump. Then I heard noises on the ground floor. I took my pistol and crept downstairs. Half way down the stairs I saw a shadow. I shouted “stop, or I’ll shoot!” then mayhem broke loose. He shot at me three times and I shot back twice. The shadow disappeared into the kitchen. I wanted to phone but the connection had been cut. 15 000 pounds in cash and 10 000 in valuable papers have been stolen from my safe." As he signed the statement, Berry Hyde from the forensic team came and told Newton:

„It’s a clear thing, Jack. The offender came through the garden and through the kitchen door. We have taken plaster models of the footprints. There were also a lot of fingerprints. It is not yet confirmed if they are the fingerprints of the offender." While Sergeant Newton went to his office with Campbell, Hyde started to dig the bullets out of the walls. At 0.40 the officers left the despairing David Campbell. On Sunday, a little before 11.00, Campbell received another visit from the same Sergeant Newton. However this time he wasn’t so friendly: „Please get dressed, Sir, and pack your essentials. We will have plenty of time to discuss the facts about a faking a crime." David Campbell thought and hard before he realised which mistake he had made.

What had he done wrong?

The solution... In the police laboratory, they found out very quickly that all five shots came from the very same weapon.