The Crowbar, the Copper and the Burning Smell
It is 02:10 on a January night at a Calgary distribution centre; outside it is -18°C. On your round you find the north fire exit wedged open with a wooden shim, a crowbar lying on the floor inside, and a pallet of copper wire cut and short by roughly 40 kg. Just outside the door a man is sitting on the concrete holding one hand, which is bleeding through a work glove. He says, "I just fell." At the same moment the fire panel shows a trouble signal for the north zone and you smell something like burning plastic, though you see no smoke. Your partner is at the far end of the building. Police ETA is 9 minutes, EMS 15.
1. Rank your actions for the next ten minutes and justify the order.
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1. Personal safety and scene awareness (0–30 seconds). You are alone, the building is 300 m long, the door is open, and someone may still be inside. Do not walk into a dark dock area to look for intruders. Back to a wall, light on, radio your partner to hold position and watch the other exits. Nothing else you do matters if you are injured.
2. The burning smell. A trouble signal plus an odour is a possible fire, not a paperwork problem. Pull your partner to the panel, identify the zone, and follow your employer's emergency response plan. If the alarm activates or you see smoke, evacuation of anyone in the zone overrides evidence collection entirely. Life safety outranks property every time.
3. The injured man. Call 911 for EMS and police as a single call, then give first aid within your training - control bleeding with a gloved direct-pressure dressing, keep him warm (hypothermia is a genuine risk in work gloves at -18°C), do not remove the glove to look, do not give food or drink. Moving him inside is defensible for cold and bleeding; if you do move him, note the original position in your report.
4. Containment. Once the man is safe, the door is watched and the fire question is answered, seal the scene and log who enters.
The reasoning: hazards to you first, then life safety, then property and evidence. A guard who photographs a crowbar while a smouldering fire grows has made a career-ending judgement.
2. What do you do with the crowbar, the cut wire and the shim, and what does continuity of evidence actually require of you?
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Before touching anything: photograph or record each item in place - its position relative to the door, the pallet and the wall - because position is evidence and handling destroys it. Write the description in your notes while it is in front of you.
Handling: nitrile or leather gloves, and where practical lift by the edges. You are not a forensic technician; your job is not to lift prints but to avoid destroying them. Never test, wipe, clean or "fix" an item.
Packaging and tagging: each item separately (the shim does not go in with the crowbar), tagged with date, time, exact location found, item description, and your name and licence number. Do not use the crowbar to pry anything.
Continuity means an unbroken, documented custody trail that answers: who had it, when, where it was stored, and how it was secured. A written log entry for every transfer. When police take the items, record the officer's name, badge or reg. number, the time, and a receipt.
The trap: handing items to a police officer at the door with a cheerful "here you go" and no log. Six months later the defence asks where the crowbar was between 02:30 and 09:00 and nobody can say. Chain of custody is not paperwork for its own sake - a break in it is an argument that the item was tampered with.
3. The man finishes speaking, stands up and starts walking toward the street. Can you stop him?
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Almost certainly not by force.
- No arrest power is engaged on these facts. Criminal Code s. 494 requires a person found committing a criminal offence. He is sitting outside a door with an injured hand and a story. The crowbar was inside and not in his possession; "short 40 kg of copper" is an inventory discrepancy, not an observation of theft. Belief that he probably did it is not the test.
- Trespass law doesn't help either. He is already off the premises; the occupier's remedy is to keep him out, not to hold him.
- Physical restraint without lawful authority exposes you to civil liability for false imprisonment and assault and to criminal exposure under ss. 265–266. "He might have done it" will not survive contact with a lawyer.
- What you can do: ask him to stay - "EMS and police are on the way, and you're bleeding; please wait in the warm room"; offer first aid and warmth; tell him plainly that police have been called. If he is confused, drowsy or clearly hypothermic, consider his capacity to make that decision and call EMS about him.
- If he leaves: note the exact time, direction, his own words verbatim, clothing and description, and whether he was limping or bleeding on the ground. That description plus the scene evidence is worth more than a contested physical hold.
- If police arrive while he is there and arrest him, your notes and continuity become the file. Write them before you go off shift, not two days later.