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| (Left to Right) Draco, Nim, Anky, me (Mr. Smiley), Lizzy, Mark and Para pose for a photo around the newspaper culprit, Betty Shiftwell (next to me). |
This is Mr. Smiley reporting from Smiley's News as a
follow-up from a story we published a few weeks ago written by Lizzy the Lizard.
That was when Lizzy's story went missing and so she wrote a story on the
missing article she was working on instead. Ever since, I'd been involved in
trying to solve the mystery of who stole it! I began my search by looking on
the security camera footage and whoever pulled off this robbery also capable of
turning off the security cameras long enough to complete the deed. Smart guy!
With nothing else to do, I reported the robbery to Mark Louis, the official at Animal
Adventures Inc. (AAI.). He and the other authorities (consisting of Nim the
Chimpanzee, Draco the Dracorex dinosaur, Para the Parasaurolophus and Anky the
Ankylosaurus) went to Lizzy's office and checked for fingerprints.
Unfortunately, they were unable to find anything. Drat! “It seems whoever stole
Lizzy's article literally picked up the paper and left,” says Mark. “He/she
must have also used gloves to open the door to the office unless Lizzy left her
door open. But they knocked down a Lizzy's drink cup in the process, so we know
they were probably clumsy and in a rush, as all burglars are.” So what could we
do next? Well, Mark and I worked together on the internet to look for any other
newspaper article robberies and were shocked by the results: 12 articles were
stolen from other newspaper publishers in the past three months, which amounts
to one article a week for publishers that publish weekly; and get this: they
were all stolen on a Monday! So our culprit was someone who must frequent
newspaper publishers a lot and has access to everyone's office (including
mine!). Nim thought of a nifty solution – create a sort of booby-trap! He is
quoted for saying, “Alright, my plan is to have Lizzy leave her door open with
a (fake) newspaper article on the desk. Then, the thief will hopefully pick it
up and take it. BUT, there's going to be a little, light-weight beacon on it
that will make our beacon detector pick up the signal and we can follow it to
the culprit's layer!” So according to the plan, we got right to work and set
the paper on Lizzy's desk. Lizzy initially thought the beacon was a little
insect, but I was able to stop her just in time before she gulped down our only
way to catch the thief. We waited till the end of the day and . . . as Nim had
suspected, the paper was gone! So the authorities, Lizzy, my trusty junior
photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I followed the signal and tracked it to
an old shed near AAI. The authorities surrounded the building before
bursting inside to find . . . a surprised Betty Shiftworth sitting in a chair
reading Lizzy's article! This is the same woman who delivers mail at AAI.
(actually we have two mail deliverers; the second one is Ming the Guanlong,
he's a dinosaur)! After securing her, the authorities examined the place and
found 12 (plus our fake) articles – these were the ones that were stolen. “I
was only taking articles to start my own newspaper column!” Betty exclaimed
when I asked why she'd steal other people's articles. “I was getting bored and
I thought doing my own newspaper would be fun once I had enough articles. I was
planning to rewrite them for my own papers once I had about a year's worth . .
. [but] I suppose I'll never get my year's worth.” Newspaper publishers
(including mine) received their articles back and decided not to press charges
since it was a “small theft”. However, I am sure of two things from now on:
Betty is fired and I'll be using the more trustworthy Ming to deliver mail from
now on and I'm keeping my office door locked when I'm not in it!
Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian
Ryan, Joy Hammond
*Advertisement*
We here at Smiley’s News, I have been working night and day
to get articles ready. I could really use
some help! So we are looking for people interested in writing (especially kids
and teens).
If you are interested, PLEASE(!) send an email to animaladventures@aol.com
and save me from working night and day! I’m exhausted!
Weekly Cartoons
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