Issue #27, July 8, 2013

Title:  He said, she said
By Author: Clare Mishica 

Tag line:  Trying to determine which version of events was true, the sheriff found himself wishing the dog could talk …

Police characters: Sheriff Witt  

The gist:  Neil is driving his little red sports car.  He takes his eye off the road to change a CD and runs a four-way stop sign, running into a big blue pickup truck.  Both cars had damage but no one was hurt.  The driver of the truck was a teenage girl and she had a little white dog that had a pink bow.  She had a cell phone and called the police about the accident.  Neil has had several traffic violations and is worried about his insurance.  He looks around and sees that there are no other witnesses and the jewelry store on the corner isn’t open yet.  He decides to blame the girl.  He knows better than to claim she was texting as phone records can be checked so he claims she was fussing with the dog and ran the stop sign hitting him. She tells him that she stopped and that he didn’t.   When the sheriff arrives, they both tell their sides to the sheriff.  The girl added that she was not fiddling with the dog, and the dog, in fact, has her own safety seat.  The sheriff then tells Neil it’s against the law to make a false accident report and that he was going to get the security film from the jewelry store camera. 

Crime scene:   At a four-way stop on the road. 

Clues:  The size of their respective cars. 

Suspects:  None. 

Red herrings:  None.

Solution:   Neil’s sports car is low to the ground.  The sheriff realizes that Neil couldn’t possibly have seen the dog in the doggie car seat from the sports car seat as the truck is too high. 

My two cents:  This was a rather long, rambling story.  We read about the accident and how Neil was the actual guilty party and how he planned to frame the girl.  Then he gets out of the car and he confronts the girl and she denies it, telling her version of what happened.  Then the cops come and they both tell their sides of the story AGAIN.  ((yawn)) 

Just because the dog has a car seat doesn’t mean he was in it.  All of us have seen little dogs peering over car steering wheels, standing or sitting in the driver’s lap.  Neil could have seen that from his car. Why the sheriff believes her story over his is puzzling. Neil was sneering and the girl was crying but that shouldn’t sway an officer. Men bluster and women cry whether they’re at fault or not.  The only thing that will really save this girl is that the sheriff thinks the jewelry story has security cameras and he said he would check them.  

This was a ho-hum story.  At least the tag line didn't give it away.  I'll bet the sheriff not only wished the dog could talk, but that he could get himself a stiff drink.