National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 668 - 611 The Eve Before Catastrophe_2

Chapter 668: Chapter 611 The Eve Before Catastrophe_2

In addition to that, Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team dispatched four vehicles, plus two more from the Second Squadron, and four from the Zoumadao Police Station. They headed to three service areas around Ningtai under the cover of night to investigate.

The main place where the theft of truck drivers occurs is in service areas. Among these, fuel theft is the most common, followed by tire theft and cargo theft, with the difficulty of these crimes increasing in that order. The latter cases also indicate a deterioration of public safety.

Pang Jidong and the Luojin City Bureau police officers who came with him were taken care of; they did not have to work this night shift and could just wave goodbye.

As a fleet of twelve vehicles departed, one of the accompanying police officers suddenly said, "Pang Da, did you notice the license plates?"

"Hmm." How could Pang Jidong not have noticed? Out of the 12 vehicles, not a single one had a license plate starting with "Shan L." There were hardly any with "Shan O" either, and several had out-of-province plates, which was outrageous.

Pang Jidong could guess with his nose that these vehicles, which were neither locally registered in Shan Nan Province Qing He City nor police vehicles, were mostly acquired through Huang Qiangmin’s "ingenious plundering."

"In our brigade, we might not even have as many cars as this county bureau has," muttered one of the police officers who came along.

Pang Jidong chuckled and said to him, "A car is just a possession after all. The last time we did DNA for The Great Learning, the payment alone could have bought a Porsche. The only trouble is if Huang starts wanting people instead of cars."

The accompanying police officer laughed, "They can’t possibly get into human trafficking, right?"

Pang Jidong pointed at him, then at himself.

The wind in Ningtai suddenly turned bitingly cold.

...

Back at the police station, Jiang Yuan was still flipping through photographs, simply reviewing them and making notes from time to time.

The other police officers didn’t understand why, and Jiang Yuan did not bother to explain.

He was actually looking for tool traces.

The diesel of large trucks is particularly easy to steal because their fuel tanks are almost completely exposed. Moreover, the fuel tank caps are standard-sized, so thieves can easily insert a high-powered pump and siphon the fuel within minutes, then conceal the pump under their clothes.

However, inserting the pump requires a certain technique. Most large truck fuel tanks are locked, and some are quite firmly secured.

New thieves in the trade can also be stumped by the lock.

Generally, they use a knife to pry it open, a process similar in difficulty to shucking oysters. Those who are more prepared might use a crowbar. There are outliers who use Swiss Army knives, but the most adept use actual lock picking tools, showcasing another level of professional internal strife.

No matter what tool is used, they all leave behind identifiable traces.

Most importantly, in all cases of large truck theft, the issue of tools is ever-present. Not only locks need to be pried open, but siphoning hoses and pumps also must be used.

The latter two generally do not leave any traces on the truck, but the siphoning hoses used to steal the diesel can’t be completely clean; the diesel dripping on its exterior will fall onto the ground, creating distinctive traces.

Some hoses also leave dragging marks—since the thieves’ tankers aren’t necessarily parked next to the truck being stolen, they could be in the middle of the road with a ten-meter-long hose dragged to siphon fuel from parked trucks.

Given the thieves’ lack of scruples, it’s likely that they don’t bother to clean and carefully carry back the hoses when they’re done. The most common approach is to drag them along the ground for a while before gathering them up.

These are all tool traces.

In addition, tankers can easily leave other corresponding traces, such as tire marks. Often, where large trucks park, the ground is soft, making any left-behind impressions even clearer.

Since the police station usually handles cases one by one and the detective team doesn’t have adequate forensics personnel to sort through these, such traces are often not thoroughly processed, even if their presence is known.

But to Jiang Yuan, his target isn’t just one or two cases, nor is it, as Director Tan imagines, to work on a batch of cases over a long period.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan could fully exploit the Level 6 Tool Trace Identification to categorize these cases.

Though there are quite a few oil thieves in nearby cities and counties, and even gangs traveling within and outside the province, in reality, those who rely on this for a living are just a few hundred people.

After all, stealing 600 liters of oil in one night equates to an income of three thousand yuan. If two people cooperate, that’s just over a thousand yuan per person.

For these thieves to sustain their living, they must commit crimes at a high frequency.

Jiang Yuan used tool trace identification to categorize the cases. Not only did he associate multiple cases under each coded thief’s name, but he could even classify resolved cases into these categories.

In other words, if a repeat offender commits a crime again, Jiang Yuan could directly identify them through tool trace identification.

Even if they change tools, their operational habits remain relatively the same, providing a basis for judgment.

Jiang Yuan didn’t even need to activate the "temporary+1" skill—Level 6 was already overwhelmingly powerful.

The only slight difficulty was the volume of accumulated cases. Looking back five years, there were so many photos that even two or three days wouldn’t be enough to review them all.

But if the look-back period was too short, there was the concern that some thieves might not yet have been released from jail.

Keen to send repeat offenders back to prison, Jiang Yuan quietly committed himself to this task, just as he heard someone shouting downstairs.

Taking a break from the tiring review, Jiang Yuan got up and walked out to the corridor, looking down from above.

The first floor of the Zoumadao Police Station is a high-ceilinged lobby used to welcome people coming to make reports and conduct other business.

From the second floor corridor, one could see the tops of the heads of those reporting crimes.

At the moment, there was an elderly lady with white hair, accompanied by a young girl with a bun.

"Captain Jiang," a police officer from a neighboring room, who was also watching the commotion, greeted him cheerfully.

Jiang Yuan nodded with a smile, "You’re here every day at the station, yet you’re also keen on watching the excitement?"

"This one’s pretty intense," said the neighboring police officer with a laugh. "The complainant’s family member makes video livestreams in their spare time, amassing over a thousand fans in less than a month. Then, a media company approached, claiming they could train her to become an internet celebrity, but requiring a training fee. The complainant wouldn’t let her transfer money, which led to a big uproar at home, ending in a police report."

"That sounds like a scam."

"It’s something like that, though it’s a bit tricky to define. They’re asking for a training fee, but the issue is the person believes in it themselves, willing to gamble the money to take a chance."

Jiang Yuan nodded, "Nowadays, too many young people want to become internet celebrities."

The neighboring police officer laughed out loud, "I bet you wouldn’t guess - it’s Granny Zhang with the white hair who wants to be the internet celebrity."

Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment before looking down again, and indeed, the case suddenly seemed much more lively.