Daily Casefile · Forensic
The Missing Paddle Register
≈ 4 min
On a Thursday in mid-July, club secretary Moira Hennessy discovered that the club's two competition-grade carbon fibre paddles — property tags SC-4 and SC-5 — had been replaced with a pair of worn fibreglass training paddles spray-painted silver. The genuine paddles were worth over a thousand pounds apiece and were scheduled for use in a regional regatta. You have been asked to reconstruct the exact sequence of events that led to the substitution and its discovery, so the club committee can determine when security failed.
The scene
Stourwick Canoe Club boat shed and adjacent equipment store, rural Midlands, England, present day
The events
- A delivery docket for new buoyancy aids is slid under the store door
- Club secretary Moira Hennessy discovers the substitution
- Head coach Barrie Dodd signs the paddles out to the equipment store
- Junior member Priya Sall borrows the bow rope from the equipment store
- A layer of silver spray paint is applied to the fibreglass decoys
- The genuine carbon paddles are removed and the decoys left in their place
Play today’s Forensic.
This case first aired on July 24, 2026. A fresh forensic runs every morning — same rules, five minutes, one solution.