The Girl or the Grandfather/Pike Place Market Area/Tue Nov 28/2:00 pm: Officer Kathleen Graves reports: "I arrived at pawnshop to pick up the weekly pawn slips. I was in plain clothes and driving a plain car. I parked next a brown 1986 Cadillac and observed a male sitting in the passenger seat with his door open. I observed a second man come out of the pawnshop with a silver napkin ring in his hand. Due to my training and experience, I believed both males to be behaving suspiciously. I paused next to their vehicle, as the second male approached the first male, and overheard the second male say: 'The pawnshop won't take the napkin ring. Is there something else?' The first man pulled an antique watch out of his coat pocket and handed it to the second man. 'What else did we get?' asked the second man. 'We got some more watches and some other shit,' said the first man. 'Let me try this first,' said the second man, referring to the pocket watch. I followed the second man into the pawnshop.
"Once in the pawnshop, I listened to the second man talk with an employee regarding the worth of the watch. I decided I would question the second man and had the store manager call police and request a uniformed patrol unit to assist me. I identified myself as a Seattle police officer and asked the second man where he got the watch. 'I found it in a box in the back of my grandfather's storage unit.' I told the second man that I observed the first man handing him the watch out of his coat pocket. 'If I asked the first man where the watch came from, would I get the same story?' I asked the second man. 'Yes, you would.' The uniformed patrol officers arrived. I had the second man detained and went outside to contact the first man.
"I identified myself as a Seattle police officer and asked him where the antique pocket watch came from. The second man stated he got it from a girl's house in the University District. The girl has a huge box full of jewelry and other things, and she told him he could have stuff to pawn for cash. I asked if he had other items, and he stated: 'I have two other watches and other shit in the trunk.' I asked him to open the trunk. The trunk was opened, and I saw some more sliver napkins rings, harmonicas, glass paperweights, money scales, gold watches, an antique Oldsmobile car watch, and a room thermometer. I closed the trunk and went back into the pawnshop and told the second man about the items in the trunk. He stated they also came from his grandfather's storage unit.... [Eventually, I arrested the first and the second man.]" My note: Both men are lying, but the first man is clearly a better liar than the second. Why? Because the reality in the second man's lie is weak, whereas it is strong in the first man's lie. The girl in the University District, her box of old goodies, and her very generous offer to have these goodies pawned—all of this has a connection with the reality (two men trying to pawn items). The second man's lie has no real connection but a purely associative one: old man ("my grandfather") equals the old silver napkin ring. The more reality is in a lie, the better it is. 
