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plot Is this believable for my plot?

H

harmonica44

I am working out a plot and I have it where a villain who is the leader of a group of crooks, get's an emergency call that the cops are coming to raid a building of theirs and they have to get there first and get rid of evidence, even torch it if necessary.

He calls the other gang members for help, and they all meet him there. However, is it believable that they would all be available to come and all answer their phones? I mean what if one were at work, and wasn't allowed a cell phone on a factory floor or something?

Is it believable that they could all show up right away, or do I need to come up with a scenario that is more plausible where they would all be together to begin with? I keep thinking but I do not have a scenario where they would all be together, because the police already suspect two of them so it's best to keep their distance and act innocent.

So if they were to be together prior to getting the call it would have to a plausible emergency. But I haven't been able to think of any that would logically fit in, without getting too convoluted.

Do I need to write it so that they are together before getting the call, or can one get it, call the others, and they can all show up in 15 minutes and still have it be plausible?
 
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You worry about the wrong details.

What about the fact that they are all gathering to a place the police will visit?
Why do they all have to be there?
Is there so much stuff to get rid off?
In that case: yes, it is possible they all can be there.
They are crooks, so if they are not allowed to have a phone on the workfloor, they will have it anyway :p (See: you get stuk in rules all the time)
And they will find away to get their. Althogh not all at the same second.

But in what timeframe will the cops arrive?
Is it smart to be together?
What can the crooks do to delay the cops?
Can they bloch the road by crashing a car?
Start a shooting?

If you already struggle with such a thing...
 
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Besides, any "smart" criminals would have already thought through how to dump evidence. Hey, it's the computer age, all you have to do is click on "Format Disk" and the entire drive is blank - no more evidence! As for physical evidence it depends greatly upon what the evidence is; stolen cars? Drugs? Other contraband? What needs to be destroyed is going to have a huge influence on the timeline and what needs to be done to eliminate the evidence; it takes a lot more effort to destroy a car than to dump a bag of heroin down the toilet.


BTW, you may want to check out "New Jack City" which has a good scene about a major drug ring eliminating everything after being tipped off to a police raid.
 
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Neither here or there but a regular hard drive format won't get past a data recovery specialist. You need special software that keeps rewriting all the sectors of the hard drive over and over to truly make it irrecoverable.

Or burn the damn thing with thermite or something :)
 
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I don't think anyone would question how they could all be available to be there. I recently binged through Breaking Bad and Daredevil, and am continually noticing how so many plot points require a willing suspension of disbelief from the audience. I think the viewer just accepts certain things, probably because they understand it isn't reality and will accept the plot for what it is, just so as long as it is engaging.

Could be interesting though (and even a bit avant garde) to have a show that really attempts to capture a greater sense of reality.
 
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sfoster said:
Neither here or there but a regular hard drive format won't get past a data recovery specialist. You need special software that keeps rewriting all the sectors of the hard drive over and over to truly make it irrecoverable.
Click to expand...

Yup, they're digital "shredders" that completely eradicate the data. And they are amazingly cheap.

Also, it depends upon the system. If you format a hard drive separate from the drive containing all of the software all the data is gone, although forensic data recovery specialists can recover a few things, digital addresses and so forth, but not much else.
 
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Okay thanks. I saw New Jack City and was actually thinking of that scene when writing it. I should watch it again. In my story, even if the crooks cannot delete all the data in time, they can take the hardware with them, and drive away, and destroy it after getting away. That is their plan anyway. Of course there would be road blocks, but you can always escape through alleys and within crows and blend in.
 
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