Friends Always Win in the End!
by Ruwen Rouhs
Chapter 7
Wildlife Cameras and a Pizza Mob
After lunch, Severin and Arash relaxed side by side on the bed. Closing his e eyes Arash asked, "Do you really think the R4-buggy you saw last the night was the same spying on us at the park?"
Severin shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, maybe not. But this type of car is so rare here in the city that I'm sure it was the same one." After a pause, "But the man who was in the car last night was fatter." Speculating on, "However, that's not saying much, it was the same car and maybe the spies just took turns."
"And now what? What does that mean? Are they spying on me or you? Me for political reasons or you because you're such a good soccer player?" "Forget the latter. Me and an upcoming soccer star? Never!" pointing at his weak arm. "But you, because of your father's activities as a n opponent of the Mullahs !" "But how do they know that I'm here with you? I haven't told anyone!"
"First we have to be sure that they are spying on us at all. But how? One of us has to stay up the next night. "
"Or we can take turns."
"Wait, I may have a better idea. I need my sleep." Severin got up, went to the garden window and suddenly shouted to Arash, "I've got it. Our wildlife camera! Dad uses it to watch for animals in the garden, like hedgehogs, foxes or racoons. We can mount it in the front yard to monitor what is happening on the street."
Said and done! With Arash's help Severin mounted the wildlife camera at a hidden spot overlooking the street. "It's connected by air to my father's PC, therefore we can check the shots without taking down the camera."
"Would a similar system work at our house also?" "Don't know, but I am pretty sure the camera is not good enough to transmit the photos from your house to our house and to father's PC. We would need a second system to be installed at your house. We can use a wildlife camera without connection to a PC or a cell phone. They preserve the clips at a SD-card. We can analyze the card next day at home. That is much cheaper anyway."
Next morning, they checked the video clips in the file of Severin's fathers PC. On the first fifteen clips, only cars drove by or cyclers. On the next a pedestrian was walking his dog. On the 17th clip, the R4-buggy rolled to a stop, parked in the second row and switched of the driving light. After about four more cars had passed, the R4-buggy left his place and drove away. What was the driver of the car doing in the half hour in between? He hadn't left the car, otherwise the camera would have registered it. Therefore, he had stayed in the car. Had he been watching the house again? And for what reason?
Deciding to record the events in front of Arash's house from now on, they checked the internet for the best wildlife cameras in the lower price range. Noting the brands, they took off for the main shopping street. In Mighty Market, the biggest dealer for electric appliances as well as cameras there was not a single wildlife camera on display. "Just order the one you want," the grumpy salesman told, "and you can collect it tomorrow!"
Severin shrugged his shoulders, "We need it now. Thanks, anyway!" and they left. The same happened in the other super store, called Jupiter.
Luckily, they found a small second-hand store at the end of the main street. The store was dusty and untidy, but when they asked, the owner conjured up three wildlife cameras out of the nothing. One was new and still in its original box. The others were used. "The used ones still work like new. I'll give you the two for the price of one. But you'll have to get the SD-cards and batteries yourself."
"And if they don't work?" Arash wanted to know.
"Bring them back and I refund you."
Full of anticipation, they jumped on their bikes and without paying attention to the heavy traffic, they rode off. At the next traffic light Arash barely made it through on dark-yellow, let's better say red. Severin, on the other hand, was not so happy and had to wait until the traffic lights turned green. Despite the involuntary stop Severin was faster than Arash and they turned at the same moment into the street Arash's house was located.
They didn't trust their eyes. The street was clogged with vehicles and a crowd of people with bikes. Immediately, Arash hit the brakes, came to a screeching stop and almost flew over the handlebars of his bike. Parked in front of his house were two multicolored delivery cars. The advertisement on one read, "PIZZATO! the Best Pizza Place in Town", while the inscription on the other red, "Delicious, Delicious, it's the One You are Dreaming of!" showing the picture of a pizza dripping with cheese.
The vehicles were surrounded by cyclists carrying pizza delivery bags on their backs. Severin counted more than twenty. Arash immediately wanted to speak to a neighbor, however, Severin slowed him down, "Don't! Can't guess what's going on!" At that moment, two police cars with flashing blue lights arrived, one from one end of the street, the other from the other.
Two police officers got out and began to question the excited pizza delivery men. The one from the "Pizzato"-van pushed his way forward, "They ordered us here. By phone! We were supposed to be there at 11am flat! And that's when our colleagues arrived, also!" pointing to the other car and the delivery bikes. "Nobody opens the door! Nobody's in the house!" another pizza delivery boy added, "We even searched from the garden!" a third one said! Now everyone was shouting at each other and at the police officers!
Now the police started to question them, "Who ordered the pizza? Was the customer in the shop himself or did the order come by telephone?"
"By telephone, of course. We've already asked around. Everyone received the call from the same number and all at the same time." "Did he give a name?" "Sure, he did. It was something like Seakar or Seakal. My boss didn't understand him well. The connection was noisy." The policeman returned to his car and began to talk via intercom with the police headquarter.
In the meantime, a car with police in plain cloth had arrived. The young policeman called at Severin. Severin remembered him, because it was the one who talked to him yesterday had already met yesterday, when the arson attack on Arash's house had taken place, "Your name is Severin, I am right. Is your friend with you, the one who is living there?" pointing to the house." After Severin had waved Arash over, the officer introduced himself. "I am detective Hellwig, Henner Hellwig. Call me Henner," Then he voiced his suspicions, "At first glance, it looks like a pizza mob. Such mobs are usually initiated by cyber criminals. They want to annoy people, bully them, play games with them. Lat not least they want to deceive the police. This is known as swatting. As a rule, however, the victims of such an attack are people known to the public."
"Like?" Severin wanted to know.
"Politicians, for example, or internet stars, actors, very rich people, etc.!" Thinking about the information, he could reveal to the boys without revealing internal police information, "But that is not likely to be the case here." Turning to Arash, "Your father is not a celebrity, we have checked on that. He's not a millionaire either." He looked at him questioningly, "Can you think of a reason why someone would want to play such a trick on him?" then he added, "Threaten him, scare him?"
Severin was about to tell him about the beating attack on Arash and that this was supposed to be a warning to his father. But when he saw Arash's pleading look, he preferred to keep quiet.
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