Under Arrest - A is for Alibi

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Welcome to letter A of the 2019 A-Z Blogging Challenge!

As announced in my reveal post two weeks ago, I'm going to be talking about all things justice system.

Today's theme is alibi. 

What is an alibi?

Have you ever been accused of having done something illegal? 

How did you convince the people who claimed you did it that it couldn't possibly have been you? 

Chances are you had a good alibi.

Let's assume you have been accused of going on a bank robbery spree last Tuesday between 9 and 9:30am around the Rancho Bernardo Freeway 15 exit area.

Police say an eye witness saw your car at one of those locations:




Here's your alibi:


On Tuesday you arrived at work (which is about 20 miles away) at 8:30am, (time stamp on the electronic time tracking system, surveillance camera at the entrance of your office building), logged onto your desktop, sent a bunch of emails, made phone calls, all of which can be tracked electronically and corroborated by clients. Between 9:30 and 10:30 you attended a staff meeting - a dozen people were physically in the same room and may testify on your behalf. 


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So you're probably off the hook!

Sometimes in criminal TV shows they have a bunch of suspects, and one of them is dropped from the list super quickly because he has a foolproof alibi. Wanna know which one? At the time of the crime he was already in jail for something unrelated. ;-)

These days I feel it's easier to come up with an alibi. So many of your activities can be  tracked. IF you have a cell phone - and who doesn't. 

I always feel bad for the people who said there were at home at the time of the crime. That's kind of hard to prove if you live alone. 

I don't remember what crime show it was, but a police officer did great in his interrogation. The suspect claimed to have spent the night at home, watching the game on TV.
The cop didn't ask further questions, and the proceeded to talk about other things, where the suspect worked, what he had been doing earlier that day, etc. 

The guy relaxed and felt he was off the hook. Just as he (thought he) was about to leave, the officer asked "so what did you think of that controversial call the referee had to make?"
The suspect's face went blank. 
"I thought it was a good goal - did you?" the officer insisted. 

It was so very obvious the suspect was not at home and did not watch the game!

What can we learn from this? 
  1. If you're home alone, order pizza and keep the receipt. 
  2. The delivery person may be your new best friend.
  3. Pay attention - annulled goals may save your life one day.
In rare cases people prefer to go to jail because they don't want to reveal their whereabouts. 

Huh? Well, I don't know if it happens in real life, but this lady Brooke Windham in Legally Blonde was a suspect in her husband's murder case, and she refused to provide her lawyer with her alibi. 

So he sent Elle, the very girly first year law student, to get the alibi from their client. 

This is how the conversation went down ;-)




Were you ever in need of an alibi? Did you provide one for a friend or family member?

I hope you had fun and will be back tomorrow for the letter B!


Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay


Comments

  1. The closest I've ever come was when a PI knocked on my door and asked where I was at a certain day/time...turns out it was because he wanted to know if I'd seen something rather than where I was particularly (I hadn't been home and therefore couldn't have seen anything).

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  2. This is a fun A to Z theme, especially for those of us who enjoy crime shows. Looking forward to more! I've never had to furnish an alibi, but that's a great tip about ordering pizza when you're home alone. ☺

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  3. Hello, fellow A-to-Zer! I am extremely into mystery novels--in fact, my A to Z this year is about Golden Age Mystery Tropes--so your post interests me quite a lot! And! I love it when suspects were in jail at the time! That is really the best alibi! Although, strangely enough, it turns out not to be actually foolproof, in the book I am reading now. I won't say the title, because that would spoil the book for others, but it is by John Dickson Carr, who loved to create seemingly impossible situations. Locked rooms were his big thing, but apparently he did tricksy alibis, too. And yeah, it is always great when the detective casually busts up someone's alibi by a seemingly casual question or comment.
    Thanks for a great post!

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  4. I love reading murder mysteries and, sometimes, the person with a great alibi turns out to be the culprit with a great fake alibi!

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  5. never had to provide an alibi but i'll definitely remember the pizza man/receipt tip hehe. nice one!

    Joy at www.thejoyousliving.com

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  6. I'm one of those people who are home at the time of the crime, how vexing. but good advices.

    have a lovely day.

    p.s., your comment font is too strong and thick to read easily, just wondering if that's intentional

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  7. I often wonder if my work would provide an alibi for me if needed. I generally have a classroom of kids who could vouch for me. But considering how much they remember from day to day, maybe not.

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  8. Years ago, a policeman knocked on our door and asked some questions. We never did find out what it was about. I have a full time job and I think they would vouch for me...well maybe, maybe not. And I almost never get pizza delivered. I need to tell my husband we need to do that more often.

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  9. I have no alibi and would be screwed if I needed one, home alone is generally all I would have except Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings

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  10. I work from home but fortunately I can pinpoint times of activity on the computer so I'm pretty safe I think. Also, the hubs is home since he is retired and spouses can't be forced to testify against each other, right? LOL Great series.

    Janet’s Smiles

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  11. As a mystery writer, this will be a fun theme for me!

    DB McNicol, author
    Microfiction: Automobile

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