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NECKLACK 7' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace

The policeman was waiting for Michaela when she came out of
school.

"We need your help again, Michaela." he said.

"Was the necklace stolen again?" Michaela asked.

"Yes. But we don't know who did it, when it happened or how." he
replied.

They went to the museum and looked at the display case. They
discovered a large hole in the glass in the backside of the
display.

"How could the robber cut a hole in the glass without being seen
by the customers and the security guards?" asked the policeman.

Michaela replied, "We need to look at the television
recordings."

They looked at the recordings of the television cameras that
watch over the necklace.

The policeman pointed at the television screen and said, "This
is when the guard first noticed that the necklace was missing."

"There are customers in the showroom." exclaimed Michaela, "Are
you saying that the necklace was stolen while the museum was
open?"

"Yes." replied the policeman as he pushed a button on the
recorder, "Now let's play it backward and see when the necklace
was taken."

Less than twenty seconds earlier, there was a blur behind the
display case and then the necklace just disappeared. So, they
played the recording in slow motion. When they did, they saw
that the blur was a man running behind the display.

"Did you see that!?" exclaimed the policeman, "He just ran by
and reached into the display and pulled out the necklace!"

Michaela replied, "That means that the hole was already cut in
the glass some time earlier."

So, they ran the recording backward again. But they never saw
anything suspicious earlier that day. So, they played the
previous day's recording. At a different time of day, they saw
the same man waiting in the corner of the showroom until
everyone's back was turned away from the necklace display. Then,
he ran across the room and behind the display. When he was next
to the display case, he stopped for a second and pressed a
suction cup against the glass. At the same time, he pounded the
glass lightly with a small hammer. This broke the glass in a
perfect circle. He pulled the glass out and stuffed it under his
jacket and walked out of the showroom with it.

Michaela said, "This means that there was a hole in the glass
for a whole day before the necklace was stolen."

"Amazing!" replied the policeman.

Michaela asked, "The hole in the glass was almost a perfect
circle. That means the glass was already cut before he hit it
with the hammer. Let's see when he cut the circle."

They played the recording for the previous day to see when the
man cut the glass. But they almost missed the blur. Again, when
they slowed down the recording, they saw the same man waiting in
the corner of the showroom until everyone's back was turned away
from the necklace display. Then, he ran across the room and
behind the display. When he was next to the display case, he
reached out and touched the glass with what looked like a
pencil. Then he ran out of the showroom and didn't come back.

"He didn't cut the glass in a circle." said the policeman.

Michaela replied, "I'll bet he made small cuts with a glass
cutter every day for several days in a row."

Sure enough, when they played the television recording, they saw
the same man return each day to cut a small part of the circle
as he walked behind the display. It took a whole week of small
cuts to cut the whole circle.

"Well," said the policeman, "We have this guy's picture, but we
still don't know who he is. He's never been arrested before. Any
ideas where we can find him?"

"Yes," replied Michaela, "This guy has glass cutting tools and
he seems to know how to cut glass. Let's look in the phone book
to see if Lucifer Snidely owns a glass factory or a window
factory."

Sure enough, Snidely Glass Company was just a few blocks away
from the museum. When the police walked in the door, one of the
employees ran out the back door of the factory. He was arrested
a few blocks away. It was the same guy they saw stealing the
necklace on the recordings.

"Well," said the policeman, "We have the robber. Where do we
find the necklace?"

"Try the office." replied Michaela as she pointed to the factory
office.

Sure enough, there was a large safe in the office with a ten-key
pad like the one on a telephone.

"Open it." demanded the policeman of the manager.

"I can't." said the manager, "The man you arrested was the only
one beside Mr Snidely who knows the combination."

"That's okay." replied Michaela, "We'll figure it out."

They looked all around the office for a clue about the
combination.

"Aha!" exclaimed Michaela.

"Find something?" asked the policeman.

"Yes," replied Michaela picking up a small hammer, "This looks
like the hammer the robber used to break the glass in the
display case."

"By golly, I think your right!" exclaimed the policeman, "But
what good does that do us now? We're looking for the combination
to the safe."

Michaela pointed to the bar code that was still glued to the
handle of the hammer, saying, "This will tell us the
combination."

"That's not a combination." replied the policeman, "That's just
the bar code the cashier scans at the hardware store."

"That's what Lucifer Snidely wants you to think." replied
Michaela.

"Well, okay." said the policeman as he took the hammer to the
safe and pushed the numbers as they appeared on the bar code.

"The safe didn't open." exclaimed the policeman.

"Of course not." replied Michaela, "Lucifer Snidely planned this
robbery. He would never make it so easy to open the safe."

"Then what good is the bar code?" asked the policeman.

Michaela pointed to the information to the left of the bar code.
Instead of product information, there were 100 numbers arranged
like this:


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0   || ||| | ||| | || |||| || |||

6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5   8  5  4  1  6  3  9  2  7  0

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2

9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3


She said, "These numbers will tell us how to open the safe."

The policeman asked, "I see at least ten different combinations
here. Which one opens the safe?"

Michaela replied, "None of these!"

"Why not?" asked the policeman.

Michaela replied, "Lucifer Snidely would never list the
combination the way you would normally read it."

"How then?" asked the policeman.

"Top to bottom." replied Michaela.

"That still leaves us with ten combinations. Which one is the
right one?" asked the policeman.

"The number closest to the bar code." replied Michaela.

(can you tell the combination from this clue?)

Michaela punched this combination:

0 5 1 9 4 6 2 8 7 3

A green light went on. There was a click, a buzz and a hum. The
door of the safe swung open. There was the world's most
expensive necklace. Michaela, the world's greatest detective
solved the case again.

©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
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