OFFICER: Good morning. What can I do for you?

LOUISE: I want to report a theft. I had some things stolen out of my bag yesterday.

OFFICER: I’m sorry to hear that. Right, so I’ll need to take a few details. Can I start with your name?

LOUISE: Louise Taylor.

OFFICER: OK, thank you. And are you resident in the UK?

LOUISE: No, I’m actually Canadian. Though my mother was British.

OFFICER: And your date of birth?

LOUISE: December 14th, 1977.

OFFICER: So you’re just visiting this country?

LOUISE: That’s right. I come over most summers on business. I’m an interior designer and I come over to buy old furniture, antiques you know. There are some really lovely things around here, but you need to get out to the small towns. I’ve had a really good trip this year, until this happened.

OFFICER: OK. So you’ve been here quite a while?

LOUISE: Yes, I’m here for two months. I go back next week.

OFFICER: So may I ask where you’re staying now?

LOUISE: Well at present I’ve got a place at Park Apartments, that’s on King Street. I was staying at the Riverside Apartments on the same street, but the apartment there was only available for six weeks so I had to find another one.

OFFICER: OK. And the apartment number?

LOUISE: Fifteen.

LOUISE: Right.

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OFFICER: Now, I need to take some details of the theft. So you said you had some things stolen out of your bag?

LOUISE: That’s right.

OFFICER: And were you actually carrying the bag when the theft took place?

LOUISE: Yes, I really can’t understand it. I had my backpack on. And I went into a supermarket to buy a few things and when I opened it up my wallet wasn’t there.

OFFICER: And what did your wallet have in it?

LOUISE: Well, fortunately I don’t keep my credit cards in that wallet – I keep them with my passport in an inside compartment in my backpack. But there was quite a bit of cash there … about £250 sterling, I should think. I withdrew £300 from my account yesterday, but I did a bit of shopping, so I must have already spent about £50 of that.

OFFICER: OK.

LOUISE: At first I thought, oh I must have left the wallet back in the apartment, but then I realised my phone had gone as well. It was only a week old, and that’s when I realised I’d been robbed. Anyway at least they didn’t take the keys to my rental car.

OFFICER: Yes. So you say the theft occurred yesterday?

LOUISE: Yes.

OFFICER: So that was September the tenth. And do you have any idea at all of where or when the things might possibly have been stolen?

LOUISE: Well at first I couldn’t believe it because the bag had been on my back ever since I left the apartment after lunch. It’s just a small backpack, but I generally use it when I’m travelling because it seems safer than a handbag. Anyway, I met up with a friend, and we spent a couple of hours in the museum. But I do remember that as we were leaving there, at about 4 o’clock, a group of young boys ran up to us, and they were really crowding round us, and they were asking us that time it was, then all of a sudden they ran off.

OFFICER: Can you remember anything about them?

LOUISE: The one who did most of the talking was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of something … let’s see … a tiger.

OFFICER: Right. Any idea of how old he might have been?

LOUISE: Around twelve years old?

OFFICER: And can you remember anything else about his appearance?

LOUISE: Not much. He was quite thin …

OFFICER: Colour of hair?

LOUISE: I do remember that – he was blond. All the others were dark-haired.

OFFICER: And any details of the others?

LOUISE: Not really. They came and went so quickly.

OFFICER: Right. So what I’m going to do now is give you a crime reference number so you can contact your insurance company. So this is ten digits: 87954 82361.

LOUISE: Thank you. So should I …