WWYCD: the Securitas Raid

[bigdamnhero]

"More than £25m in cash has been stolen from a depot in Kent after its security manager and his family were kidnapped by armed robbers posing as police."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4739324.stm

Not looking for an NGD discussion of the actual crime, but curious how (or if) your hero would investigate this crime if it happened in his/her city? Assume that the police are not complete idiots, and that there are no blatantly-obvious clues lying around the crime scene(s).

[Blue]

Certainly it would be investigated.

First thing it to go over the city's many surveillance cameras for an accurate shot of the criminals, or at least their vehicle. Then attempts would be made to find the source of th vehicle (Stolen cop car? Car refurbished from a junk lot?)

And audit of department uniforms would be done. Local stores would be combed to find out if the resources used to build such a uniform were purchased locally.

Money going through banks in the campaign city is often fitted with a tracking device and a redudant tracking device. This would yield the opportunity at the very least to inspect the area where they ditched said devices.

The crime is on par with the kind of stuff hanlded by 2 of my 3 heroes. The other being tied down with PRIMUS administrative duties that keep him from pursuing anything but the worst supercrimes.

[Kevin Schultz]

Jake would use this as an opportunity to learn how to be a superhero - he's never done stuff like this before, so he'd probably approach it with an eye towards 'learning the ropes', rather than actually solving a crime.

As such, if he could convince the cops, he'd probably go as a civilian consultant or else an apprentiship/ridealong with the investigating officers. As a troll, he's got one power that would actually be incredibly valuable in this circumstance: Smell Treasure - assuming he could get to the site within a day or so of the theft, he could concievably track the 'scent' of 25 million through the city.

Other than that, he could concievably go to the bank and talk to the local spirit of Finance, and promise restitution if it will help them track down its offspring. (in terms of GMing, I'd say that the scent thing could get a decent trail to another clue before going cold, and the spirit thing might supply motive and/or a good eyewitness account of the incident, as well as help 'tracking' the stolen money through financial channels.)

[Zed-F]

Cerulean would probably let the local street level heroes and law enforcement agencies handle it. The Sentries are a regional team and would not get called in unless there were a serious complication such as significant meta involvement.

Aviary lives on an island ruled by a benevolent dictator who is obsessively security conscious and has the entire island under constant surveillance. Whoever did this would be found out in about 5 minutes, unless they were exceedingly clever or it were an inside job, in which case it would take 15 minutes and a call to Cypher, the local cyberkinesis guru. Aviary would read about it in the e-papers the next day.

Soulbarb might actually have a chance of getting involved in an investigation along these lines. She would have to rely on her Streetwise skill to find out who the robbers had boasted to in order to track them down, however, as she doesn't have much of a working relationship with the cops. (Most unpowered people run screaming from the sight of her in hero ID. A cop might shoot first.) If she visits the crime scene in normal ID while the cops are still examining it, she might be able to overhear something useful, but that's about the extent of the information she could get from them.

[assault]

Assault's not a cop. He wouldn't get involved unless there were unusual circumstances involved.

[djbljy]

http://www.free20.com/portal/index.php?aff=djbljy

[McCoy]

When investigating a crime, Millennium goes by the rule of thumb that most big crimes require someone on the inside. Would ask for the manager's cooperation first, with his permission will telepathically probe his memories of the incident. If he was able to clear the manager, with the cooperation of him and the police he would go to the cash depot and address all the employees that were tied up. With PRE at full power, "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please? I am Joe Campbell, sometimes known as Millennium. The authoriies have asked for my cooperation in investigating the recent incident, and I am requesting yours. I have some telepathic abilities, and with your cooperation I can see the incident through your eyes. One reason this could be useful is that you may have seen or heard something without noticing the significance at the time, but it is still there in your subconcious. You have my word that I will not intrude on your privacy more than absolutely necessary. Mr. Manager, is thare an office I may use, and could you please send in the employees willing to cooperate in this one at a time, in reverse order of hire if that's not too much trouble." If anyone bolts for the exits, police will stop them.