 Mystery: October 26, 2016 Issue [#7935] |
  Mystery
This week: We've been robbed! Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "The toilets at a local police station have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on."
~Ronnie Barker
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Mysteries do not always have to involve murder. Other types of crime, such as robbery, and be the focal point of your story, or can serve as a subplot in a mystery novel.
One advantage to centering your story around robbery instead of murder is that you do not have to kill off any of your characters! Everyone survives, which means you have more suspects.
Here are some ways robbery can figure in to a mystery story:
Something of great value is stolen:
Large amounts of money or famous art objects are seldom left out where anyone might just pick them up and carry them off. They are more likely to be surrounded by multiple layers of security in a bank vault, safe deposit box, or museum. Breaking through the security would require careful planning, exceptional skill, and possibly an accomplice on the inside.
Robbing a bank is one obvious way to steal money, but thanks to modern technology, a thief might be able to gain access to large sums by breaching computer security rather than breaking into a vault.
While famous items such as the Mona Lisa or the Crown Jewels are priceless, they would be impossible to sell, so the motive for stealing them would have to be something other than money. Maybe the thief is seeking revenge on the rightful owners for some wrong they have done him in the past. He may feel the object actually belongs to him for some reason. Or maybe he wants to steal it just to prove he can.
A seemingly ordinary object is stolen:
This type of mystery is actually more puzzling than one involving theft of a valuable or famous item. For example, why would anyone want to steal your grandma's old fake pearl necklace or the vase you picked up at a garage sale? Maybe something of value is hidden in or on the stolen object. Maybe it has sentimental value for the thief that nobody else knows about. Or maybe the thief is actually a stalker who steals insignificant items to let his victim know he has been in the house.
Obvious signs of a break-in:
If your characters come home to find broken windows, chair cushions slashed, and the contents of drawers dumped onto the floor, it will be obvious that somebody was searching for something. Maybe they know immediately what was taken, or maybe nothing seems to be missing right away. In some cases, the thieves may not have found what they were looking for and will be back.
No signs of a break-in:
Imagine entering your house and noticing that something is missing, yet there is no sign of a break-in. In this type of mystery, figuring out how the thieves got in is as important as discovering their identity. This could even be a locked room mystery, in which something is taken from a supposedly impenetrable chamber. Another alternative might be that the thieves had a key. This would be quite unnerving, because it might mean the thief is someone the victim knows and trusts.
Something to try: Write a mystery story that includes a robbery.
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