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Ms. Shipra is a renowned scientist in TIFR, Mumbai. She recently discovered a new way of gaining huge energy from the water-current at a much lower cost. Considering its future application, many companies were after her research paper. She finally decided to file the patent. On February 4th, 2016 she visits the Indian Patent Office in Mumbai. After 3 minutes of submitting the paper, one officer in the office found that the main paper is missing. Everybody, including who were present in the office and who entered and left the office during that period, was body-searched but the paper was not found. Here is the link of the CCTV footage of 3 minutes during which the paper was stolen. (In this video, the first girl entering is Ms. Shipra.)

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1j9Jep9l0z5b2Zjc21WUjZsMFE&usp=drive_web

Can you determine who stole the paper, and why was he/she not caught during searching?

My attempt:

The old man with the walking stick came with the stick in the left hand and after all the mess, he walks out with the stick in his right hand. The question still remains, where did he hide the documents? If we watch carefully, it looks like the guy in the black and white checkered shirt exchanged something with the old man. Is he also involved?

This question is taken from the event CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), Inquivesta. Website: www.inquivesta.iiserkol.ac.in

P.S. This website plays a really annoying music in the background. Also, you cannot see the questions without registering to the fest.

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    $\begingroup$ Is this someone from the Mumbai police outsourcing crime solving to us (genius) Puzzlers? :-O $\endgroup$
    – CodeNewbie
    Mar 9, 2016 at 13:59
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    $\begingroup$ Is this another one from that college treasure hunt? $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Mar 9, 2016 at 23:14
  • $\begingroup$ @CodeNewbie, no it's the Kolkata Police actually. $\endgroup$
    – t-rex
    Mar 10, 2016 at 7:15
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    $\begingroup$ @Tanuj - ok, that's fine then, though you should add a link to your post to reference/credit where it came from. Btw, out of curiosity, was north pole the solution to the other one? $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Mar 10, 2016 at 7:22
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    $\begingroup$ To kill the sound, after you load that page, press F12 (in most browsers), then, in the inspector, look for the <audio> node. (I think it was the second one) and hit delete. B'bye sound! $\endgroup$
    – Khale_Kitha
    Mar 10, 2016 at 21:45

1 Answer 1

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Going off of the OP's comments, I have determined that the culprit is

indeed the man with the cane. I'll call him Caneman

This suspect first appears on camera at

1:55, with a cane in his left hand. This aids him as it appears he has a bad limp in his right leg, a hard and heavy limp. The cane causes his left shoulder to be elevated.

After seeing this suspect continue in the way we first observed,

at 2:08, Caneman loses the limp on his way to the table, in accordance with the distraction of the collision. Once the testy man knocks down the man who is entering (on his phone?), Caneman quickly and lightly steps to the table.

At this point something subtle occurs. While the testy man tries to help the fallen man up,

at 2:13 Caneman turns his cane so that the handle is parallel to his body, instead of perpendicular, as it was when he walked with it. It is held upright, slightly away from his body, and his right arm can be seen moving across his midsection.

Then, those with swift eyes would see that

by 2:18 the cane has switched hands, from left to right. This obviously makes the right shoulder higher than the left, but likely wouldn't affect the lower body. However, the hard, sharp limp from the right leg is now a slow, dragging limp in the left.

Further evidence of a fake is seen

at 2:32, when Caneman- with all his weight on his freshly lame left leg- spins all the way around on that leg, doing his best Michael Jackson impression. Maybe that's because he really is a smooth criminal...

If everyone in and out of the office was body-searched for the missing paper, then it becomes obvious that the only place it could be is:

inside the Caneman's cane. Canes like his are hollow pipes, and we see what appears to be him shoving it inside the handle during the scuffle. The testy man and the man in the checkered shirt were likely involved, maybe even the man who discovers that the paper is missing. But the Caneman is the one who swipes it and gets it out.

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Very nicely written. The answer given by the organizers is: The person carrying the walking stick was holding the walking stick in his left hand while entering the scene but while going out, it was in his right hand. This tells us that he was faking his handicap making him a prime suspect.I can be followed that the file containing the patent was transferred to the rightmost table. When the collision happened he was fiddling with the files while others were concerned about the collision. And the files are also found to be misplaced after he leaves the table. $\endgroup$
    – t-rex
    Mar 12, 2016 at 12:31
  • $\begingroup$ He brought the walking stick so that he could leave with a patent folded in his stick. He initially hid it inside his blazer and later inserted it inside in the stick after leaving the room. Thats why he was not caught during body-searching. $\endgroup$
    – t-rex
    Mar 12, 2016 at 12:31
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    $\begingroup$ @Tanuj Ok, so the movement I saw across his torso was him stashing it the first of two times. This was quite a unique diversion here; thanks for bringing it to our attention. $\endgroup$
    – raisinghellyer
    Mar 14, 2016 at 20:03

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