Chapter 34

One sheep was only eaten a quarter of, yet everyone in the room recounted at least one story of a stolen electric bike—either their own or someone they knew.

If averaged out per year, the number wasn’t strange at all; during the bicycle era, far more people lost bicycles.

Still, the total remained high.

“Did our building’s video surveillance capture the theft?” Jiang Yuan ate the lamb, paying slightly more attention.

“It was captured, we filed a report, but still couldn’t find anyone. By the way, can you get someone to do facial recognition?” Jiang Yongxin, who ran the car wash downstairs, being young, immediately thought of new tech.

Jiang Yuan stared blankly: “I don’t know. I’ve never seen facial recognition at the bureau.”

Jiang Yongxin looked disappointed. “Our county’s conditions are still too poor.”

“Even the city doesn’t have facial recognition. Train stations and airports handle hundreds of thousands daily—when would they ever implement it?” Jiang Yuan sighed.

“But other countries have it. Why can’t we just build our own?” Jiang Yongxin refused to believe it.

“We’re developing gait recognition instead… and we don’t even have that. Don’t even think about it. Even if we did, it couldn’t be used to find your electric bike.” Jiang Yuan dipped the lamb in spicy sauce; it was getting too greasy.

For police, solving electric bike thefts was even more troublesome than ordinary thefts. Electric bikes were mobile stolen goods—capable of carrying the suspect away—making their disposal simpler, the crime and escape faster, and if the perpetrator was careful enough, nearly impossible to catch.

Even if caught, securing evidence and successfully prosecuting the suspect was extremely difficult.

In fact, most ordinary theft cases ended with no follow-up after reporting. A simple example proves this: police officers themselves, when their phones were stolen, just bought new ones.

Moreover, ordinary people’s attitudes toward theft differed from those of police.

Ordinary people wanted to recover their losses and ideally punish the thief, so their primary goal was retrieving the stolen item, secondary was catching the criminal. Police, however, prioritized securing evidence first, then locating the suspect, third was successful prosecution, and only fourth was recovering the stolen property.

In a murder or major case, merely securing evidence was barely considered adequate work. If the suspect escaped, they’d pursue later—some criminals fled after committing crimes, and arrest was sometimes impossible.

But in a theft case, merely securing evidence was clearly inadequate. Not only was the victim dissatisfied, even the police themselves were unhappy. It meant spending one or two, maybe three days on useless work.

In theft cases, police had to achieve all three goals at once—secure evidence, catch the suspect, and file charges—to barely count as completed work. Even then, it still fell short of the complainant’s minimum expectation: recovering the stolen item.

Even if the stolen item was recovered and all four goals met, the police’s gain remained minimal: merely solving a case worth a few thousand yuan, arresting one or several minor offenders, and recovering a few thousand yuan in losses.

Thus, in small counties with chronically insufficient police resources, theft cases were always low-priority. Only when reports surged dramatically, revealing organized gangs or serial crimes, might they receive slightly more attention—provided no new murders or major cases had recently occurred.

For officers directly involved, theft cases were not only unprofitable but also annoying.

Because these cases weren’t just ignored by them; other colleagues in the bureau also looked down on them. Fingerprint analysis required waiting in line, requesting on-site investigation demanded favors, reviewing video footage relied entirely on oneself—everything was lowest priority.

And even then, you couldn’t complain. Complaining meant being immature—the fingerprint experts were busy with murders, robbery cold cases, serial arson cases. You came with a recent electric bike theft and expected priority? Did you think you could cut the line?

Fortunately, Jiang Yuan could do fingerprints himself and understood on-site investigation.

For electric bike thefts, these two skills were sufficient.

Smart, cautious, highly capable people went to take the college entrance exam, committed murder, stole hearts—they didn’t steal electric bikes.

“I’ll ask someone to help, see if we can find one or two electric bikes,” Jiang Yuan said cautiously. Still, helping villagers felt good. Family ties required social exchanges; as a junior forensic officer, he couldn’t expect every favor to him to be a high-stakes one.

Everyone in the room grew more enthusiastic.

Aunt Hua praised: “Being a civil servant really makes a difference—you can actually help! Unlike my Junye, who won’t work, won’t take the civil service exam, won’t even get married…”

Jiang Yuan, watching Aunt Hua’s enthusiasm rise further, had to remind her: “Auntie, the electric bike you lost the year before last? You won’t find it this year.”

“No problem, I’m not short on money,” Aunt Hua waved her hand dismissively. “Besides, it might still turn up. Thieves can’t spend their whole lives stealing, nor can they steal for just one year. Unless their family got relocated, how could they stop?”

Jiang Yuan thought Aunt Hua was wrong, yet not entirely wrong.

Jiang Yongxin quickly finished his rib, wiped his mouth, and asked more eagerly: “Jiang Yuan, if you call someone, I’ll go to the property management and ask them to pull the footage.”

His two stolen electric bikes were both taken this year—there was still hope of recovery. More importantly, he ran not just a car wash, but also an auto and electric bike parts shop; he had grievances about thefts and neighborhood security.

Jiang Yuan glanced out the window. “It’s too late. You can’t just call someone whenever you feel like it. Hmm… I’ll make a call first.”

In his mind, Jiang Yuan thought of Wei Zhenguo—and he dialed Wei Zhenguo.

Wei Zhenguo’s Sixth Team routinely handled theft-related property crimes and was the official criminal investigation unit.

Wei Zhenguo, who had just left hours ago, assumed the arson case had unresolved issues, and answered the phone quickly with a cheerful tone: “Forensic Jiang, what is it?”

Jiang Yuan smiled slightly: “Captain Wei, you said before—if I ever needed help, I should definitely call you…”