She's Bloody Positively Preggars!

I have left many items of equipment behind at jobs in my years, torches, pots of Ali Powder, brushes, paperwork and the odd piece of evidence (eek!), but one of the most recent gaffs caused a bit of family controversy after my examination at their Burglary.

There were a few odd looking spots near the broken glass at the point of entry, in this case a kitchen window. Now the window frames were wooden and coated with varnish, which when spilled looks similar to spots of blood. Luckily we have some of these in our cases which help solve the problem. Basically they are used in the medical field to test for blood in urine, but they also act as a presumptive test for blood at a scene. It basically a thin strip of paper with a small yellow pad at the end which turns green when hemoglobin is present. So I use one of these fellas and unfortunately it's varnish, usually if negative I'll chuck in the bin, but for some reason I slipped it in my pocket. What I didn't realise is that it slipped out when examining the daughters bedroom (easy now!)

So about three hours later back in the office I get a very stressed mother on the phone. 'I think the Offenders have left something at the scene, we think it's a pregnancy testing kit, my daughter says it's not hers!'

I thought this to be very odd, and possibly naive on the parents part, so I agree to go back and check it out. On the journey down there I'am wrestling with my conscience, do I make believe that I think it's possible the offenders left it? to save the daughter getting into trouble? or do I have a quiet word with the parents about the social habits of their precious princess. In then end it didn't matter as it was the Hemastix strip I had left behind. Apparently the daughter and the mother had been arguing for hours over this and I was called to discredit her daughters claim that it came from the offenders. When I left for the second time the relief had replaced the anger in the house, but I could feel two pairs of eyes burning into the back of my head as I walked to my van.