Camera.

I was watching a fab old film recently on telly, it was about a man who had been in jail for a crime he had not committed. He dressed up in bright odd clothes and walked around the village, so that everyone could see him. He went to that village every day, to all, he seemed like a quirky old man, with a happy-go-lucky look about him, he wasn’t hurting them, he was simply harmless and mysterious. Amongst other places he visited, was an office in that village.

They all soon got used to seeing him. Then one day, soon after he’d arrived in their village in went into the office where the worker was, on his own.

The secretary had just left and the man was about to leave too. The quirky man, got his attention, and as the man looked on, a bit at a time, he removed his beard, his moustache, then his fluffy eyebrows, his hat, his wig, his brightly coloured coat, that he put into a makeshift holdall, that was quickly turned inside out to become plain and black. Very slowly the man in the office recognized who he was, and the man that had arrived in his office at closing time, was not the same person he had thought he was!

The quirky man said to the office man, “Yes you know who I am now, I went to jail for your crimes” Then with the end of his umbrella he stabbed him to death!!!

He then removed the brightly coloured trousers, that too went in the holdall, underneath all the bright garish colours was a black suit, white shirt, and black tie.

He then simply walked out the side door, and past all the men outside the cafes and bars, unseen, unnoticed, and caught his train back home.

He had committed the perfect crime. Why? Because back then, there were no cameras, at all.

Later on, that week I was watching a documentary, a young mum had gone out to pick up a take away, and didn’t return. She was found in the boot of her burnt out car!

The police, after they had questioned her boyfriend, and saw that his alibi was good, they then turned to various cameras. But back then, the cameras, they were terrible! They were grainy, difficult to tell, race or gender. Cars were difficult to tell one from another.

But with perseverance, going backwards from where they saw her, at the takeaway and adding the cameras in the shop and the cars to the two men, they were able to arrest them. They had seen their car on the cameras but didn’t know what was in the back window, it turned out to be a white towel. The Car had belonged to a woman; her boyfriend has asked to borrow it.

On that night, the young mum had gone to pick up a takeaway, and her name was on the hand written receipt in the shop, the camera showed that a car blocked her in and she was unable to leave. After the police had the boyfriend in custody, he filled in the gaps, because even though the cameras were rubbish, he had looked at one of the cameras in the shop, and when he knew he was rumbled, as they could tell a bit by his build, that it was him! But it was amazing anyone was ever caught back then!

The boyfriend went on to say, “It was just random, we at gunpoint made her get into her boot, then I drove her car while my friend drove his car behind hers, to somewhere quiet.”

He went on, “We didn’t know her, we put petrol on her car and set it on fire, we heard her screaming, “I have a son, please let me out!” He said, “We burnt her alive.”

So, even though these cameras were not clear at all, it still helped convict them, and they went to jail for a very long time.

The police said, “Without the cameras, they would not have been caught.”

It fascinates me, when I watch old films, that there were no cameras, no mobile phones to trace calls, no DNA, no luminol, in the past, the wrong person would be in jail or not get caught at all! The good thing about progress, it also freed those who were innocent in jail. The cameras now, they are amazing, everything is crystal clear.

The lad, whose Mum was burnt alive, he was 12 at the time.