The Police Car Mystery

Due to his injury, Officer Williams of the Tacoma Police Department was given some time off work to recover.  That resulted in a temporary promotion for Sanders, Williams’s beat partner, who now got to drive the squad car.  Sanders was delighted at the opportunity, but he wasn’t used to having a car all to himself.  That might not sound hard to adjust to, but—

One day, Jack Barnes and his friends (Kurt Morris and Robbie Ransom) were at the big library downtown.  Actually, to be more precise, they were just leaving the big library downtown.  Jack had needed to look something up for a school research paper about the history of Washington State.

“How come Washington, D.C., is what people automatically think of when they hear Washington?” said Jack.  “We’re just plain Washington.  If someone’s going to talk about the capital, they should have to use D.C., as opposed to us having to use ‘State’ all the time.”

“Washington, D.C., is older,” pointed out Robbie.  “It was being built in the 1790s.  Washington State didn’t join the union until 1889.”

Kurt gaped at Robbie.  “How did you know the exact year?”

Robbie gaped at Kurt.  “This is our home state!  We should at least know something about it.”

“Well, I do, at least,” said Jack.  “Now come on,” he said, opening the door and nearly hitting a police officer.

“Oh, sorry, Officer Sanders!  I didn’t see you for a second.”

“That’s alright, that’s alright,” said Officer Sanders.  “Oh, it’s you guys!”

“Hello,” said Kurt.

“How’s Officer Williams doing?” Jack asked.

“Doing well, doing well,” said Officer Sanders.  “He’s already raring to be back at work.”

“He must be doing well!” marveled Jack.  “It’s only been a week since the injury.”

“Yes, I guess so,” said Sanders.  “Hey, by the way, you all wouldn’t have happened to see a police car around here, by any chance?  You know, a Ford Crown Victoria with a blue-and-yellow stripe down the middle that has POLICE written on the side in big letters?  Perhaps with the number 770 in black numerals on the back, just below the license number?”

“Isn’t that the one Williams—I mean, the one that you drive now?” Kurt asked.

“Uh, well, it’s still Williams’s car, and it’ll be his again when he gets back,” said Sanders.  “But, um, I parked it right out front here, and—”

“Right out front of this library?” said Robbie.  “I don’t see it.”

“That’s what I mean,” said Officer Sanders.  “You see, it appears to, um, oh my—”

“It got stolen, is that what you’re saying?” asked Kurt.

“Well, it disappeared,” said Sanders.  “Look, I’ve only been on the force for a couple years, and it’s not going to look very good if I lose this car.  I’ll be looking for it, but do you suppose you boys could too?”

“Sure,” said Jack.  “I can’t promise we’ll find it—”

“It’ll make me feel much better if you look, though,” said Sanders.  “If I can get it back today, then maybe the chief won’t be so mad.  Look, if you all find the car, I’ll give you half of my next paycheck.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—”

“I insist,” said the officer.  “You all will deserve it more than I will.”  With that, he finished entering the library.

“My,” said Kurt.  “Who would’ve thought we’d be asked to do something like this today?”

“More importantly,” said Robbie, “How are we going to look for that car?  Tacoma’s a big city, and the car might not even still be here.”

“It’s probably still in the city somewhere,” said Jack.  “In Tacoma, it’s a normal site.  Outside the city, it would attract attention.  As to how we’re going to find it, we could try riding the bus around.  That’ll take us all over the city; we can cover a lot of ground that way.”

“I suppose it’s worth a try,” said Kurt.  “I only hope whoever stole it doesn’t have it hidden in a garage.”

“What was the number again?” asked Robbie.

“770,” said Jack.  “You know, the number might be hard to see from a bus, though. Do you all have binoculars?”

“Not with me,” said Kurt.  “I have some at home.”

“Same here,” said Robbie.

“Let’s go back and get them,” said Jack.  “Then, meet me at my place. I’ll print out three maps of the bus routes, and we’ll divvy them up.  Does that sound good?”

Kurt and Robbie agreed, and the boys set off for home.  Forty-five minutes later, they met at Jack’s place where, true to his word, he had the maps.

“Unfortunately, I thought of a problem,” said Jack.  “We’ll see a lot of the city from a bus, but we might spot the car in an area between stops.  We won’t have any way to get off, if that’s the case.”

“Oh, that’s easy enough,” said Kurt, and he offered a suggestion as to how to get the buses to stop.  Neither Jack nor Robbie looked too thrilled about it, but Kurt finally convinced them that it was the best idea.

“I guess it won’t matter in this case,” said Jack, “but all at once, I hope one of you finds the car instead of me.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Kurt arrived at his bus stop just as a bus was pulling up.  “What timing!” he thought. Checking the number, he got on and looked around for a seat.  The bus was crowded, and the only window seat was two rows from the back.

“That’ll have to do,” thought Kurt.  Working his way down to the back, he squeezed past the man with the aisle seat and took a seat.  The man looked at him suspiciously.  Kurt looked back, suspiciously.  If you read a certain earlier story, you’ll know why Kurt was suspicious of people on buses.

Finally, Kurt looked away, and the man did as well.  The bus started and began its slow journey.  A block away, Kurt spotted a police car coming.

“Ooh!” he said.  Quickly, he got out his binoculars.

The man next to him gave him a funny look once again.

All Kurt could tell was that there was no number on the back of this car.  Oddly enough, several of the Tacoma police cars had their number in different places from others.  Kurt didn’t know that, but he knew what Officer Sanders had said, so he decided to keep looking.

Kurt saw five more police cars, but none of them were the one.  He yawned.  “Hah-hah,” he thought to himself.  “I hope Jack found it.  He didn’t seem to eager to—oh-oh!”

There was another police car coming up, parked on a side street on the left.  The rear end was facing the street.  It would be too tough to sight with binoculars, as the bus was not stopping, but Kurt realized he might be able to read it without them.  He focused on the car and just barely managed to get a look at the number.

But it was 770!

Now for the plan. Kurt stood up and yelled, “I HAVE TO GET OFF THIS BUS!  NOW!!!”

Screech!  The driver brought the bus to a halt and turned to stare at Kurt.  So did everyone else riding the bus.  Kurt could feel the accusing looks on everyone’s faces, but he acted totally oblivious as he stood up, squeezed past the passenger next to him (who by now thought Kurt was completely loco), and worked his way to the door.  “Thanks,” he said as he left.

The bus driver said nothing; he merely closed the doors and drove off.

There was a payphone a few feet away from the bus stop, and Kurt took advantage of it.  In less than a minute, he had the police on the line.  Quickly, he told them he’d found the car, and he told them where it was.

“We’ll be right over!” promised the officer on the other end (not Sanders).  Hanging up, Kurt glanced back over at the car—

And saw it backing up towards the road!

“Oh no you don’t,” thought Kurt to himself.  He went running toward the road and, as the car turned out into the road, he leapt onto it!

It wasn’t the smartest idea in the world, but incredibly, Kurt landed on the car.  Hanging off the roof, he quickly pulled himself on as the car took off down the road.

“Oh no, what now?” thought Kurt.  Lying across the roof kept him on the car, but he couldn’t stop it.  Or could he?  As the car approached a traffic light, Kurt inched his way to the front and stuck his head over the windshield!

Errrk! Kurt fell off as the car came to a stop, but he wasn’t hurt.  Out in the middle of traffic, the car thief wasn’t going to attempt a hit and run.  Instead, he banged on the horn.  Kurt, however, remained where he was.  Other traffic pinned the car in place.

“Hey!  What’s going on?” shouted a man from the side of the street.

“It’s that boy!” yelled an old lady.  “I saw the whole thing.  He was trying to hitch a ride on the outside of the police car.  Impudent youngster!”

“That’s right!” screamed a friend of hers.  Kurt, to his chagrin, saw a crowd of old ladies all staring at him with angry faces from the sidewalk.  “Are they some sort of club or something?” he thought.  Now, had he really been just messing around with the police, he would have agreed with them, but this was ridiculous.

“Why doesn’t that officer get out of the car and arrest him?” shouted another one.

At that moment, two other police cars pulled up, one in front of the stolen car and one in back.  The driver got out and tried to make a run for it but was promptly tackled by two real police officers, much to the chagrin of the ladies.  (“Not him!  It’s that boy you want!”)

“Thanks for your help,” said one of the officers, who Kurt recognized as Stieg.  “Sanders will be happy about this.”

“No problem!” said Kurt.  “To help any of you guys out is worth it!”

Once the crowd figured out what was going on, it was inevitable that the story of the stolen police car would hit that news.  However, since it had been recovered that day, Tacoma’s chief kept Sanders’s name out of the reports.  Case closed.