Can You Believe These ~ Mystery Question

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 49 Comments

; Psalm 68:4

Can You Believe These is this week’s Mystery Question, and you can thank Tim Johnson for sending them to me. 🙂

But first the photo and verse. I took the photo when I went to Dayton, Tennessee on my research trip. While these aren’t quite the Smoky Mountains, they have that “smoky” look. They are a part of the Appalachian Mountains. I’ve gotten quite an education of the different ranges of the Appalachians. And by the way, a native corrected me when I pronounced the mountain range with a long a sound. It’s the short a, like in at. 🙂 (Public service announcement).

This verse from Psalms was in my Bible reading this week and I thought it went well with the photo!

And now for last week’s Mystery Question–Really Incompetent Criminals. As usual, three of these crimes really happened, and I made one up. Can you guess which one?
  1. A Nissan GT-R50 pulled into the welfare office parking lot, piquing a deputy’s interest, and he checked the tags. Yep. The man had driven a stolen $125,000 car to the welfare office.
  2. Criminals need to be more careful about choosing the right target. Like, choosing a target who isn’t pointing a camera at you as you steal their bag. This happened to a criminal in D.C. who got caught when he photobombed a family’s selfie as he stole their backpack on the steps of the Washington Monument.
  3. A thief in Portland, Oregon, broke into a house and stole everything of value he could find without leaving any fingerprints. His mistake? He got thirsty and drank straight from the orange juice carton and then set it half-empty carton in the sink. DNA, anyone?
  4. A serial bike thief got caught when he tried to sell one of his stolen bikes online–through Craigslist—to the person he had stolen it from without even knowing it.

And the answer is…#1. Congrats to all who guessed correctly!

And now for this week’s Mystery Question–Really Incompetent Criminals. As usual, three of these crimes really happened, and I made one up. Can you guess which one?
  1. Police listed their 10 most wanted criminals on social media. In doing so insulted a man who wondered why he’d been left off the list. “What about me?” he asked in the comments section. Officers replied, “You are correct. You have two warrants. We are on the way.” Police arrested him on charges of violating probation.
  2. A thief walked into a Walmart and being a thief, pocketed a few items. He might have gotten away with it had he only turned around. Forty uniformed police officers milled about as part of their annual Shop with a Cop event.
  3. Police became suspicious when teens lined up at an herbal stand at a local market. They arrested the owner when the dried oregano turned out to be marijuana. Police do know the difference.
  4. A woman stole her mother’s Mini Cooper and drove it till she could go no farther. That’s because the route she took happened to be where road crews were laying concrete. The car got stuck and she had to hoof it out, only to be arrested later.
Can You Believe These is this week's Mystery Question. As usual, three of these crimes really happened, and I made one up. Can you guess which one? Leave a comment and I'll enter you in a May drawing for a book from my library. Share on X

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Comments 49

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  1. L. Murphy

    Lovely photo and verse!
    These scenarios were hilarious! It’s a hard pick, but I’m going with #3.

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  2. Vera Day

    The photo is so peaceful-looking!
    Hm, I’m going with 4 because construction road signs surely would have warned the woman to take a detour.

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      Patricia Bradley

      You haven’t been to Mississippi lately, have you Vera? lol. Oh, I started your book, When Did We Lose Sylvia, last night and I love it! Not loving that I stayed up way too late reading…

  3. Barbara Diggs

    Good ones, Tim! Hard decision. A big hah popped out of my mouth on #1.

    I’m going with #4, because if her car got stuck maybe her feet would have gotten stuck as well…but maybe not!

    Well that Scripture certainly fits the clouds, Pat! :-0 And those beautiful Appalachian Mountains are all over E. TN 🙂

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  4. Tim Johnson

    Those mountains in your photo sure look smokey (smaky?) to me. Love the verse.

    A few times, I got to tent camp in the Shenandoah Mountains about a hundred miles west of D.C. One time was with some friends who had small children. On a hike, as we got to a clearing, I saw a large, cylindrical bear trap with the door propped open. Not wanting to scare the kids, I waited until we got back to camp to ask my friends if they saw it, too. Yup. The park rangers had placed it there because of reports of a bear in the area. We forget sometimes that we share the wilderness with the “natives” who are not always friendly.

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      Patricia Bradley

      We do share the wilderness, Tim! I was at Blue Ridge for a conference and wanted to hike some of the trails until they reported a bear sighting and told us to take bear spray if we went on the trail…I decided not to go. lol

    2. Edward Arrington

      Tim, thanks for sharing the Mystery Questions with Pat. That’s interesting about the cylindrical bear trap. My wife and I drove through the Smoky Mountains last summer and never saw a bear. We were slightly disappointed. I remember visiting there with my parents when I was a boy and seeing several bears. About twenty years later, my wife, daughter, and I visited and saw at least one. I thought it was going to get my wife. Cars were stopped and the bear was meandering along the side of the road. My wife was leaning out the window taking pictures. The bear was almost to the front of the car when I told her to get her head in and shut the window. Viewing it through the camera, it did not appear nearly as close to her as it actually was.

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  5. Delores Topliff

    It could be #1 or 4, but I’ll go w/ #4 for variety this time. On last week’s though I still say it’s impossible to drink orange juice out of the carton w/o touching the carton and lvg. prints 🙂

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      Patricia Bradley

      If he didn’t leave any evidence earlier, it had to be because he was careful to wear gloves…What I can’t understand is why he left the carton! Talk about dumb. lol. Thanks for weighing in, Delores!

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  6. Erika Luther

    Pretty picture. The verse fits it well. Tim found some good ones this week. Thank you, Tim! I’m going to guess #3.

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  7. Edward Arrington

    To which “a” in Appalachians are you referring? There are only four of them. LOL! I just did a search on Google Maps and realized I live in the Appalachian Mountains. More specifically, I live in the Piedmont region of the Appalachians, which are the foothills. They cover a huge territory from Alabama all the way into New Brunswick, Canada. I love your picture with the “smoke” on the mountains. Great verse! They go together so well.

    I’m choosing #2. With forty police officers in uniform milling around, I don’t think he would have gotten away with the theft whether or not he turned around. Maybe if he’d turned around and had seen them, he might have left without pocketing anything that wasn’t his. Apparently, they did not drive their police cars to Walmart, or he was too blind to see their cars.

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      Patricia Bradley

      That’s funny, Edward–you not realizing you live in the Appalatchian Mountains. 😉 As always your logic is impeccable…now we’ll have to wait until next week if it’s on-target. lol

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  8. Trixi

    Hmmm….maybe #4? No idea, really 😀

    Beautiful verse & photo….I’ve read quite a few books with the Appalachian mountains mentioned in them but have never seen them for myself. I can just imagine how they look by your picture…smoky & all!

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