Case Studies
The suspicious suitcase
A gentleman entered an up-market, city centre hotel one evening pulling a suitcase, and tried to negotiate an acceptable price for a room for the night. Following much negotiation, he left reception and was caught on video camera in a number of locations within the hotel before abandoning the suitcase in the hotel bar.
A gentleman entered an up-market, city centre hotel one evening pulling a suitcase, and tried to negotiate an acceptable price for a room for the night. Following much negotiation, he left reception and was caught on video camera in a number of locations within the hotel before abandoning the suitcase in the hotel bar.
The staff became concerned and called the police. Owing to the suspicious circumstances relating to this incident, the fire service was called together with a scientific adviser from the public analyst laboratory.
Wearing suitable protective equipment, and after the police were satisfied that the suitcase did not contain an explosive device, the scientific adviser inspected the case and its contents. Contained within the case was as a 10-litre white plastic drum, spray-painted gold, wrapped in cling film with three of the four upper edges cut away. A small amount of whisky-coloured, clear liquid could be seen within the drum. The area was screened for radiation before a sample was removed to the mobile laboratory. Using a meter to measure α, β, γ and x-rays, the scientific adviser established the absence of radioactive materials.
Only a few millilitres of liquid were available for testing and this was carefully removed to the mobile unit. Using a portable FTIR instrument, the scientist obtained an infrared spectrum and compared this to one in the instrument library. There was little infrared activity and the predominant peaks were assigned to the presence of water. The pH of the liquid was near neutral. The adviser then did several spot tests to check for the presence of anions and cations, which also proved negative, as well as checking for the presence of spores using high powered microscopy.
The scientific adviser took the remaining liquid back to the main laboratory where trace metals analysis was done using ICP–OES. The presence of trace levels of anions was established using ion chromatography. The liquid turned out to be predominantly water with a trace amount of detergent. The mysterious gentleman was never found and the presence of this strange package contained within a suitcase remains a mystery. However, the on-site examination backed up with trace analysis in the main laboratory showed that the liquid was harmless.
