Fuddland

I went down to the Police HQ yesterday to have a look at some mugshots to see if I could identify any of them as my muggers. I really only have a clear image of one of them, so that’s the one we concentrated on.

They used the description I had provided, slightly widening the parameters, to narrow down the suspects to around sixty possibilities [“Please be aware that people who appear in this database may not have been convicted or accused of any criminal offences”], but unfortunately I didn’t recognise any of the photos. Some of the images were just ridiculous though — they were so dark you could barely make out any of the features. The officer said it was one thing they always complain about — the photos are taken using a digital camera so there’s no reason that the photographer can’t instantly see that the image hasn’t turned out very well. He also said that they sometimes get mugshots of people wearing caps, or striking some kind of pose [one of the ones I saw was doing a stereotypical “gangsta rapper” stance, arms crossed on his chest, hands in the shape of imaginary guns — what a twat], which obviously makes identification trickier.

So no joy there, which is frustrating, and I’ve also been told that the CCTV footage they have isn’t good enough to make a positive ID: the petrol station’s system wasn’t working at all, and although they have some footage from the train station where they used a cash machine, it’s from too far away. I guess the only real lead is those telephone numbers, unless I happen to spot them out and about. I wonder if they’d recognise me too?