Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 248 Gold Shop Robbery (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Zhou Yi told Shi Tao and He Bin to go ahead first, saying he would rush over as soon as he finished his business here.

Zhou Yi was also helpless when Lu Zhengfeng expressed his doubts over the phone: "That means the security environment in Luohe is good. These people don't dare to stay in Luohe anymore, and they all come here."

"Officer Zhou is joking. Hongcheng has solved a series of major cases, which makes our bureau chief extremely envious," Lu Zhengfeng said with a smile.

"You can just call me Zhou Yi from now on. We're all family, so let's not be too formal." Zhou Yi thought to himself that Lu Zhengfeng's politeness made him feel awkward.

"Okay, Zhou Yi, let me tell you about Tao Cong's situation after he was released from prison."

Lu Zhengfeng said on the phone that Tao Cong was imprisoned three years ago, in June 1994, and was released in April 1995, having actually served ten months.

He didn't know Tao Cong's whereabouts after his release from prison, because Tao Cong was not a local and did not have a fixed place to stay in Luohe.

However, he found that in July 1995, he had been detained by the local police station for participating in a gang fight.

Because he had a criminal record, he was considered a "key person to watch" during the interrogation. However, it was determined that he was only an accomplice, and the brawl did not cause any major incidents, so he was detained for ten days.

After that, the person's whereabouts became unknown.

However, based solely on that detention, it is clear that he did not reform himself after his release from prison and remains an unemployed and idle member of society.

Zhou Yi said, "I arrested Tao Cong yesterday."

"Arrested?" Lu Zhengfeng was surprised. "What did he do this time?"

"It's a fraud. His accomplice is Meng Qingtong, the one I'm asking about. Tao Cong confessed that he and Meng Qingtong met in Luohe Prison. The two had previously tried to commit fraud in Taicheng, but according to him, they failed. Then they came to Hongcheng to commit fraud, and they succeeded. However, Meng Qingtong's whereabouts are currently unknown. We found this man surnamed Meng to be suspicious while investigating another case."

Then Zhou Yi briefly explained the details of the fraud case involving Meng Qingtong and Tao Cong, including the fact that Meng Qingtong had been missing for more than a month.

"Okay, then I'll go and apply for Meng Qingtong's case file."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work."

Just as Zhou Yi was about to hang up, Lu Zhengfeng suddenly called out, "Zhou Yi, I have an idea."

"What are your thoughts? Tell me."

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t find Meng Qingtong? I was thinking, if our Luohe criminals can run to your Hongcheng, then he can run to other places too. You see, if we don’t keep in touch, we won’t know a lot of things. If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known you arrested Tao Cong, right?”

"Is it possible that Meng Qingtong is currently being held in a detention center in some city?"

Lu Zhengfeng's words enlightened Zhou Yi.

“That makes sense! Your idea is a great investigative approach. I’ll go check it out right away,” Zhou Yi couldn’t help but say. “Old Lu, you’re really something.”

After hanging up the phone, Lu Zhengfeng muttered to himself in confusion, "Old Lu?"

Zhou Yi immediately went to Director Wang of the command center and asked him to help with the investigation within the province. This time, the focus was on the detainees in the detention center, because there was no time to complete the judicial process for any case within a month, so there was no need to keep an eye on prisons in various places.

Then they went to the technical department and asked them to send two people to Meng Qingtong's rented house in Donghai Community to conduct an on-site investigation in order to confirm whether any dismemberment had occurred in the house.

When I returned to the office, Lu Zhengfeng had already faxed over the case files regarding Tao Cong's previous imprisonment.

Zhou Yi had only picked it up casually for a quick glance, as Tao Cong had already given instructions.

But upon closer inspection, they discovered that the case files sent by Lu Zhengfeng actually included information from the previous gold shop robbery case, and were not just about Tao Cong.

Therefore, Zhou Yi took a second look.

The incident occurred in early March of 1994. At 7:00 a.m. that day, a jewelry store located on a commercial street had just opened its doors and hadn't even turned on the lights when three robbers wearing white cotton masks suddenly rushed in. One of them was carrying a knife, and the other two were carrying hammers. They robbed the jewelry store.

In less than three minutes, the three robbers smashed the glass counter and stole a large amount of gold jewelry.

Fortunately, no one was injured; the saleswoman was only kicked twice.

According to the gold shop owner, the three robbers stole more than 2,000 grams of gold jewelry, with the amount involved exceeding 150,000 yuan.

Because there were very few people on the commercial street at the time of the incident, and the crime was committed in a very short time, there were few eyewitnesses.

However, the police found an elderly scavenger who had seen a motorcycle carrying three people leaving in a small alley behind the commercial street around the time of the incident.

Luohe police analysis confirmed that the robbers had scouted the location beforehand and possessed strong counter-surveillance capabilities.

In particular, the chosen time of day for the crime was during rush hour, when there is a huge flow of people on the road, making it easier to hide.

Moreover, the actual opening time of the jewelry store is 8:00 AM. The reason why the sales staff arrive at 7:00 AM is because the jewelry store needs to count and check the goods every morning.

The sales clerk responsible for opening the door and taking inventory was the owner's niece, which immediately ruled out any suspicion of collusion between insiders and outsiders.

Police immediately launched a search and investigation, but due to the lack of effective leads, the investigation made no substantial progress.

Finally, as a last resort, they had to issue a reward notice, soliciting clues from the public. More than half a month after the incident, a local villager went to the police station to report that a guy in the village had suddenly become rich, buying a new color TV and a motorcycle, which he found suspicious.

The police station did its job well, although they didn't take it too seriously. After all, there are many people in rural areas who are envious of others and can't stand seeing others do well.

They'd seen this kind of thing quite often since the reward notice was issued, but they still sent officers out to investigate.

But upon arriving at the door, before they could even ask any questions, the person who had been reported suddenly turned and ran away.

He was arrested on the spot and, upon interrogation, confessed to participating in the jewelry store robbery and also implicated two other accomplices.

Luohe police immediately attempted to arrest the other two, but only managed to apprehend one of them; the other remained at large.

Then, following the clues, they uncovered the channels for selling stolen goods, which eventually turned into a major case that wiped out the entire network of people selling stolen goods that had been entrenched in Luohe for many years.

Tao Cong was arrested in this case.

These three robbers were all locals from Luohe and had been unemployed for many years. The mastermind among them was the one who had escaped, named Li Yong, nicknamed Old Gun, who was 42 years old at the time. He was the only one among them with a criminal record, having been sentenced to four years in prison for robbery in the 1980s.

Luohe police issued an arrest warrant, but three years have passed and Li Yong has still not been brought to justice.

The wanted poster in the case file showed Li Yong's ID photo. He had single eyelids, sunken cheeks, and looked somewhat sickly, but Zhou Yi could sense a hidden ferocity in his eyes.

The rest consisted of scattered information collected during the on-site investigation and survey, among which the two arrested robbers jointly mentioned a prominent characteristic of Li Yong.

It's the first joint of the right middle finger, which is missing half of its length.

Luohe police confirmed that Li Yong had worked at a printing factory in Luohe when he was young. Later, he accidentally severed half of the joint of his middle finger while operating a paper cutter. He was later fired from the printing factory for stealing from his coworkers.

This small detail immediately caught Zhou Yi's attention.

In the June 14th savings bank robbery and murder case, the only clue was half a fingerprint.

But this half of the fingerprint is somewhat special.

If a fingerprint is left as half, it's usually the upper half, likely left by accidental touching.

However, the fingerprint in the June 14 case was only the lower half.

However, if the fingertip touches something, it is theoretically unlikely to leave only half a fingerprint, unless it is on the edge of the object and the upper half of the fingertip just happens not to touch it.

However, the location of the half fingerprint in the June 14 case clearly does not conform to this logic.

Therefore, Wu Yongcheng and his colleagues concluded that after the robbery, the perpetrators cleaned up the fingerprints left at the scene, but they didn't wipe them clean. One fingerprint was only wiped clean of the upper half, which is why the other half was left.

However, as Zhou Yi looked at the information on the Luohe Gold Shop robbery, he suddenly wondered if it was possible that the half fingerprint was not left because it was not wiped clean, but because the robber was actually missing half a finger.
Gold shop robberies and savings bank robberies are very similar in nature.

The difference is that gold is not directly converted into money; it needs to be disposed of as stolen goods.

Once you grab the cash, you can use it. Although Zhou Yi didn't know if savings banks in the 1990s would record the serial numbers of banknotes, even if they did, tracking them in real time would be a pipe dream.

After all, before mobile payment existed, money would pass through several hands and flow continuously.

Moreover, no robber would be foolish enough to steal money from one bank and then deposit it in another.

If we assume that this old gunman struck again after three years of silence, and he chose to rob a savings bank instead of a gold shop with lower security, there is only one reason: he currently has no good channels to sell stolen goods.

If that's the case, then it would be a truly pleasant surprise.

But the question is, where is this old gun now?
Because the bank robbery and murder won't happen for another two months.

According to the investigation information of the Luohe Gold Shop robbery case, Lao Qiang had scouted the gold shop for at least two weeks and figured out its situation before formulating the robbery plan.

So, is this old gun already in Hongcheng, or has he not yet arrived in Hongcheng?

However, since Luohe issued an arrest warrant three years ago, it shouldn't be difficult to find a reason to bring this matter up again and persuade Wu Yongcheng to mobilize police forces to look for this guy again.

If this old gunman is indeed caught in Hongcheng, he is most likely one of the robbers in the June 14th case, and this should be able to resolve the tragedy without a trace.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi couldn't help but feel excited.

Even if you uncover a highly suspected murderer before a crime occurs, it can be difficult to deal with because the murderer has not yet committed the crime.

But if the murderer had an unsolved criminal record and was still wanted, that would be perfect.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi quickly picked up the phone and called Lu Zhengfeng to learn more about the old gunman.

(End of this chapter)