The Importance of Trifles
| Author | Harker |
| Published date | 01 July 1935 |
| Date | 01 July 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800306 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Importance of Trifles
By
DETECTIVE-SERGEANT
HARKER
Lincolnshire C.LD.
ON
zoth September, 1933, Professor Tryhorn, of Hull
University College, delivered the first of a series of
twelve lectures to selected officers from the Lincolnshire,
Lincoln City, Grantham Borough, Grimsby, and Boston
Borough Police Forces at County Constabulary Headquarters,
Lincoln, on the subject of " Scientific Methods and Criminal
Investigation". On 7th October, 1933, two cases of house-
breaking occurred at Scunthorpe.
The
connexion between
these events is not apparent at first
sight;
the events,
in fact, were connected only by threads,
but
these threads
ultimately proved to be strong enough to obtain for a certain
specialist in housebreaking two years' hospitality at the expense
of H.M. Government.
On Saturday night, 7th October, 1933, a man brought
a bicycle to the Police Station at Scunthorpe and said that
he had found
it
on the Doncaster Road. He had first seen
it at 7 p.m. and as it was still there at 9 p.m. he had brought
it to the Police Station for safety.
The
bicycle was a "
Crown"
make, almost new, and the frame bore a number.
The
name
and address of the finder were noted and he was thanked for
his services. A little later, about
10
p.m., atelephone call
was received at the Police Station from a man who said his
name was Harrison, that he lived at 42
Trent
Road, Gains-
borough, that his bicycle was missing from the Doncaster
Road, and that he would call at the Police Station and give
full particulars. He did not call, and the address was found
shortly afterwards to be fictitious.
286
THE
IMPORTANCE
OF
TRIFLES
287
At about
II
p.m. on Saturday, 7th October, 1933, in-
formation was received by the Scunthorpe Police that a house
had been broken into during the temporary absence of the
occupiers, who had left home at 8 p.m. and had just returned.
This
house, named "
Thark
", is the only detached one in
astreet of semi-detached houses in a residential quarter of
Scunthorpe. Detective-officers visited the house and found
that the thief had climbed a rain pipe, at the side of the
house, giving access to the roof of the scullery; he had then
climbed over this roof to a bedroom window and entered
the house through the top section of the window. All drawers
in the house had been ransacked and a quantity of jewellery,
consisting of rings, brooches, and ear-rings, had been stolen.
A window on the ground floor had been opened (no doubt
as a rapid means of escape for the thief, if disturbed)
but
the
intruder had apparently left the premises by the door. A dog,
which usually barks at all visitors, had been left in the house
by the occupiers.
A close examination by daylight the following morning
showed that the thief had carefully wiped out with a wet
cloth any marks which might have revealed his identity.
There
had been a considerable amount of rain on the Saturday
evening, and the rain pipe, scullery roof, and window sill of
the bedroom showed
mud
traces. Similar marks were found
in the bedroom,
but
these had obviously been wiped over by
a cloth and furnished no information.
The
detective-officer in charge of the case, bearing in
mind certain points regarding investigation which had been
demonstrated by Professor
Tryhorn
at the weekly lectures,
carefully examined the premises both inside and outside.
A few fibres were found adhering to the bedroom window
frame and these were carefully preserved for what they were
worth;
no finger-prints could be found. Routine inquiries
in the neighbourhood were at once instituted.
About 9.30 a.m. the same morning a man reported to the
police at Crowle, about I I miles from Scunthorpe, that his
new " Hercules " bicycle had been stolen from an outhouse
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