THE MUMMY MURDER

  Occasionally, when folks at the Naples Police Department are going through the old records they come upon oddities--records that look to have been gnawed around the edges. Those are easily explained: rats. But, the pages are also peppered with shot holes like they'd been used as targets in a turkey shoot. What the. . . ? Chester Keene remembers why.

  When we were housed in the old PD at 8th and 8th South we used one of the cells as records storage. It was on the women's side and never used for its intended purpose. So, in need of storage space we converted it to a locker.

  One day a clerk, Debbie, went back to the cell to retrieve an ancient record. She rapidly returned, screaming  that there was a rat in the records. 

  Dave Dampier went to our armory and got an old .22 rifle and put some rat shot in it. (Rat Shot is a cartridge with small pellets in the bullet end, instead of solid lead, making it a mini shotgun shell)

  He took the rifle to the old cell, located the box with the rat in it, and blasted away. Instead of blood and fur exploding from the box, a cloud of dust and shredded paper drifted up. Seems the critter was long dead and petrified, having starved on a City diet that featured too much starch and no cheese. 
  Everyone got a good laugh out of the Mummy Murder. 
  And the Peppered Paper Case is solved.