Just as my friends and I were waiting for our car to be brought up by the parking valets at the Bellagio, this armored car pulled up. I couldn’t help myself. I had to snap a picture.

[Photo: Lynn DeVries, Please do not repost without permission]

We’ve seen armored car heists in all of the CSI series, but standing there, right next to an armored car, outside of one of the richest casinos in Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but look around for the story to begin. LOL!

Thankfully, no crime was committed and everyone was safe here today. But I thought it was such a fun thought and photo that I just had to share.

Have a terrific day, CSI fans.

Post from: CSI Fanatic

CSI: NY Episode 5.10: The Triangle
Air Date: December 10, 2008

On the street, near the Empire State Building, a man is walking about, frantically talking to himself…or his cellphone…about the “airwaves”. At the same time, several people talking on their phones or listening to radios all suffer horrible interference. This includes Danny, who has just been talking on his phone to Lindsay about the baby. His phone goes out as he’s heading into the 34th Street Station. The strange man talking about the “airwaves” announces to himself the arrival of “The Bermuda Triangle.” An armored car nearby is stalled at an intersection. The driver can’t reach anyone on his radio or his phone. When he slides the peephole open to check on Carl in back, Carl is suffering from a rain of sparks, and is apparently being electrocuted as a result of the phenomenon hitting the whole block. The driver seems unable to exit the cab, and bangs the glass crying out for help. The back door swings open.

The driver, Greg Hufheinz, tells the team about the incident. They ask if he had opened the door to help, but he tells them that drivers are instructed to stay in the cab until emergency assistance arrives.

Stella and Mac examine the irregularly shaped “bullet” wound on Carl Custer’s chest. There’s no GSR, exit wound, or apparent bullet. He has burns around his eyes, as well as on his wrist near his watch. Stella spots a small, black pineapple sticker on the guards cuff. She asks Mac if the crime scene seems strange, but Mac has already walked away from the body.

Don tells Stella about the driver’s protocol to stay in the cab, but he has found a witness from a nearby bus stop who says she saw someone turn a knob on the back door and open it. The few who noticed the person disagreed on whether it was a man or woman, and none of them noticed a uniform. Stella says there were no prints on the handle. Stella wonders where Mac disappeared to. Don responds with the common urban legend about that block being the “Bermuda Triangle”. Of course, Stella is not buying it, but Don goes on about all the calls that come in about that block. [Interestingly, the High Eye logo on the armored car has a triangle with an eye in the center.

Sid finds metal shards deep inside the wound. Hawkes enters the lab, as Sid is microwaving a pig's liver. Sid explains that it wasn't a gunshot that killed Carl. The plastic and metal fragments he found inside the chest cavity lead him to believe that Carl had a pacemaker that exploded, causing massive trauma to the heart. Hawkes says he's heard of them failing, but never exploding.

Sid pulls Carl's liver from the cooler, and points out the dark lines. He then removes the pig's liver from the microwave, showing him similar lines. So, he concludes that Carls was exposed to massive microwave radiation, which also explains the burn marks where his eyeglass frames and wristwatch were in close contact with his skin. Sid continues that, after 9/11, all the radio antennae from atop the World Trade Center were replaced on the Empire State Building.

Adam shows Lindsay that the intersection camera had stopped working at 4:56 PM. Both the camera and the traffic light haven't functioned since then.

Danny catches up to Lindsay, who is satisfying a craving at a sidewalk vendor's cart. He hurriedly asks about her family's medical and mental health history. Seemingly satisfied with her answer, he proposes marriage. She pauses, then replies, "No." He seems deflated, but... Didn't he see Walk the Line?

Hawkes uses the imager to reconstruct enough of the pacemaker to read the identifying marks. He tells Mac that patterns, directionality of the fragments, and lithium cobalt oxide traces seem to confirm Sid's theory that the pacemaker exploded as a result of microwave radiation hitting the batteries. The manufacturer, Marwood Technologies, had remote monitoring on Carl's device. His cellphone would relay signals from the pacemaker. The signal, however, ended at 4:56 PM, the same time that the security cameras and traffic signals failed. Hawkes wonders, though, how all that energy coming from atop the Empire State Building could have only affected Carl Custer, and no one else.

Mac, Danny, and Hawkes look out from atop the Empire State Building. They all circle the roofline just below the base of the tower. Using electrosmog detectors, they find no signs of unhealthy amounts of radiation coming from the roof. Mac proposes running a DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) search to see if they know of anything that could cause the damage.

Stella finds Mac in his office, and asks where he was last night. He tells her he was with the FBI. Special agents picked him up and took him away to ask about the Ann Steele case (Episode 5.04 Sex, Lies & Silicone), the one with the mysterious flash drive containing Steele's client list and all the sordid details that she helped go away for these powerful people, some of whom are supposedly top government officials. They accused Mac of stealing the flash drive, and warned him to be careful. If he plans to use that "weapon" to take "pot shots" at public officials, he'd better make sure there wasn't one pointed at himself. He tells her that he took it to the property room right after Sheldon gave it to him. After speaking with the FBI, though, he returned to property and found it missing from the case evidence. He told her that he checked the chain of custody. He hadn't yet talked to the clerk he handed it to, officer Kevin Cross.

Adam shows Lindsay that he found a dust void circling the electronic lock on the armored car door. Knowing that electromagnetic radiation had disabled the electronics, he knew that the intruder would still need to bypass the actual lock mechanism. Then, he remembered a device that he was able to borrow from a friend at the Treasury Department...Satan's Ring.

Lindsay turns the borrowed ring around the lock, and the unique polarity of the magnetic charges on the ring...two south poles opposite each other, and two north poles opposite each other...charge the coils in the lock causing them to disengage. The shape and size of the ring match the dust void on the door. Adam tells her that Don is looking for anyone with a record of using a Satan's Ring to perpetrate a crime.

Don finds one instance of Satan's Ring use. It's a case he worked, and the thief was Bernie Benton. He tracks Benton down in his pub, and shakes him down. Benton insists that he was never sloppy and hurt anyone, and that he's no longer playing that game. A woman enters the pub and Benton sends her home with cash, telling her that he's closing before her shift. Don tells him not to go anywhere.

Lindsay examines the pineapple sticker that Stella found on Carl's sleeve. Currently pregnant, she becomes wary of the toxins she handles in her job. Conspicuously...for the camera, anyway...she applies the chemical under a hood to minimize her exposure to its vapors. She tells Stella that she found epithelials on the sticker. She has sent a DNA sample to Adam.

On GCMS, they notice compounds commonly found in sunblock. Lindsay tells Stella...the lab's official safety officer...that she has a pregnant friend who works in a forensics lab in New Jersey. She tells her that her friend is nervous about all the toxic chemicals she uses. Stella assures her that her friend is safe, considering all the safety protocols they follow: fume hoods, goggles, gloves, face shields. When Stella asks about her friend's partner, Lindsay is coy about the circumstances, saying they're complicated. Stella...with a bit of a nod and a wink...tells Lindsay that, if her friend's co-workers are anything like Lindsay's own co-workers, that they will surely help her, and that they'd absolutely be happy for her. Stella's caution and intentional avoidance of acknowledging Lindsay as the "friend" was very touching. [Tear.] “Tell your friend, ‘Congratulations.’”

As Sheldon tells Mac that the military is uneasy about releasing information about advanced weapons to civilians, including police investigators, Danny rushes in with news about the armored car.

Danny takes Mac to Anderson Savings and Loan, the next stop on the armored car’s route. Danny tells him that, last evening, “Carl Custer” from High Eye signed in at 5:01 PM, and walked out with a deposit transfer of $250,000. The problem is that he died five minutes before that, four blocks away. On the security video, they see the guard…young, blond, bearded. The man doesn’t look like Bernie Benton. They deduce that it’s probably an inside job.

As Stella and Mac discuss the lack of leads, Danny enters with news that all the High Eye employees checked out “squeaky clean”, and all were accounted for at the time of the incident. Mac realizes that a camera on the roof of the Empire State Building might offer a better vantage of the scene. Stella notes that it points toward the Anderson Savings and Loan. They tap into the recorded video, and find the assailant leaving the building with the cash. He gets into an old red van. The driver takes off, and almost hits a pedestrian. They seem to know how to track him down.

Stella and Danny find Yert Yallawac…the disturbed, “Triangle”/”Airwaves” man from the opening. He’s in the area doing his “research” with his equipment…a dead and half-smashed cellphone. They ask Yert about what he saw at the time of the incident. He says that, at the time of the “Wave of Darkness”, when he was monitoring congested energy channels, he heard the “warning signal” and narrowly defeated death…i.e. he wasn’t killed by the van. He managed to snatch an epaulet with a High Eye button on it from the fake guard’s uniform. He lets Danny keep it. Yert goes back to his monitoring the energy.

Adam tells Lindsay that he found no hair or epithelials on the epaulet. He decided to search based on fragrance, but any scent on the material was too faint for their equipment to make a match. She recommends using canines.

Don and a canine officer go to High Eye. The dog leads them to Greg Hufheinz’ locker. Mac and Don question Hufheinz, who insist that Carl was like family. Don tells him that the man who stole the money from the savings and loan was wearing his High Eye uniform. Hufheinz, though, tells them that he had taken his spare uniform to the dry cleaner, but when he went to retrieve it, they told him he’d already picked it up. He insists that someone else picked it up. He denies recognizing Bernie Benton’s face. Mac and Don both believe him. Don wonders if Bernie scoped out Hufheinz, stole his uniform, and took the money. They have to wonder, though, who helped him stop the real armored car.

In DARPA, Sheldon finally finds an advanced prototype microwave gun developed by Sanon Research, a midtown company. As he tells Stella this, Lindsay enters with news that the sticker was a tan-too sticker, a novelty used to leave an image on tanned skin. The person who used it, must have been at a tanning salon, but failed to remove the sticker before coming into contact with Carl. DNA from the sticker doesn’t make any direct hits in CODIS, but there is a familial match. Bernie Benton must have a daughter.

The team discuss the newest developments. Nothing in Bernie Benton’s case file mentions a daughter. Don has put a tail on Benton, though. Sheldon has checked out the microwave gun prototype. Whoever used it, also knew how to wipe it down. The user could have easily driven up behind the armored car, and set off the gun at the light, causing all the damage. The list of Sanon Research employees, though, doesn’t include any Bentons, so the daughter must have a different name.

Don and Stella visit Benton. When they describe what they’ve figured out, that his daughter was just supposed to stall the truck, but must have gotten greedy and used his Satan’s Ring to rob it; he acts as if he’s the one who did it. Don tells him that he can tell he didn’t know the details of his daughter’s actions until Don mentioned her. He won’t tell his daughter’s name or her whereabouts. Bernie assaults Don, but misses. Don cuffs him, as Stella checks Benton’s cellphone call. She finds a series of texts to a Jamie Sunderland, and reports this back to Sheldon. He finds her name. She’s a marketing representative at Sanon Research. Benton tells them that there’s no use going to Sanon. She’s lying low.

Meanwhile, Jamie Sunderland is getting into a helicopter.

Across town, an officer tells Mac about a woman finding a body in an alley. The victim, property clerk Kevin Cross, has a bullet wound in his forehead.

Lindsay tells Danny that it’s not that she won’t marry him. It’s just not the right time. She assures him that neither of them is going away, so they can afford to take “baby steps”.

In Mac’s office, he smiles and hugs Lindsay and Danny. [Yea!]

Post from: CSI Fanatic