Edward's Alcantara - The Great Charles Heist

1. Choose a time period and locale:

New York City, 1934
Metropolitan Museum of Art/ The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park

2. Develop a detective:

Wallace “Wally” Carousel
Newest curator at Met’s division of Medieval Art
Nebbishy and neurotic, highly unsure of himself but also a highly respected historian and quite capable of bluffing his way out of situation
Keeps a detailed diary of his daily events and random observations.

3. Outline the crime:

A priceless engraving of Charlemagne is stolen from the home of a wealthy collector. Carousel is tapped by the NYPD to help in tracking the culprit.

4. Include some clues:

Due to the limited number of interested parties, and a distinct lack of master art thieves running around, the evidence comes from the shoddy work of whoever broke in. The first suspect is the new doorman of the collector’s building (the collector requests to not be named and the story is written is style of diary therefore he is only referred to as “The Collector”). Wally follows him back to his home; which he shares with his three brothers. Wally notices one the brothers’ glasses has a broken leg. A broken leg was found at the crime scene.


5. Identify the MMO:

Motive: Profit, also the public embarrassment of collector
Method: The doorman let his brothers in trough the front door but the brothers faked a break-in in order to throw an investigation off
Opportunity: With both the collector’s children away at school, the thieves waited for night when he and his wife would both be out for an entire night.

6. Identify the alibis of the suspects:

Family of the collector were all out of the house during the time of the robbery; no one else had access to home except the doorman.

7. Provide a climax:

Wally is able to put two and two together quickly and deduces the events of that night. Not being experienced criminals and fearing a harsher sentence than they might have actually received, the brothers’ panic and threaten to kill Wally.


8. Write your denouement:

Wally manages to talk his way out a bullet to the head. He understands that times had been tough on the family and that the only reason they even attempted the crime was in order to get some money selling it. Wally promises to explain this to police and help them avoid any serious punishment.


9. Summarize with a short conclusion.

Wally ends his last journal entry