Criminal Investigation Attributes Guilt
NOTE: This is a true story that happened in the area where I live.
In late May, an automobile caught on fire as the owner was driving it. The initial investigation by the police department determined that the cause of the fire was probably arson. The owner’s insurance company was notified and their arson investigation concurred that the origin of the fire was likely arson and the insurance company and the police began a joint investigation.
The police obtained video tapes of the parked car in the hours prior to the fire. The owner, who was writing an expose of criminal activity in the local area, gave the investigators the names of 500 people who might want to harm him and the investigations began to investigate them.
All 500 people were cleared of complicity in the fire. The video tapes showed that no one had bothered the car in the hours that preceded the fire. At this point a court order turned the vehicle over to the investigators. The fire had begun when the engine heated up small bits of paper that had been placed in the engine compartment. At this point, the investigators determined that these same small pieces of paper had been placed in areas that a human could not have accessed without some removal of engine compartment parts.
After 2 ½ months of a joint investigation between the local police and the insurance company it has been decided that it was a squirrel who was building a nest in the engine compartment that caused the fire!