CSI Wolfhill

One night back in the late summer I (Ronnie) had just gone to bed. Becky walked in with a container of packaged pudding in her hand and a very perplexed and concerned look on her face. “What is it”? I said. “Ronnie, this pudding has been tampered with”! “In what way”? I reply, trying to be calm and matter of fact in the face of Becky’s obvious intent to panic. “Look” she says, “there are dozens of little holes in the covering.” Sure enough, I looked and saw at least 20 or more holes punched all around the plastic or foil covering.

“Did you eat any yet?” “No, but what worries me is that Sunnie ate one just before she went home half an hour ago”, Becky replied. Well, now I began to be a little more concerned. Becky had looked at the 4 remaining pudding cups and each one had 10 to 20 holes in them. Sunnie we assumed had been the first to open the six packs by removing the cardboard cover. Becky retrieved the cardboard cover out of the trash can and found no holes in it. “It must have happened in the factory on the assembly line”, I said, “before the outer covering was put on”. This theory didn’t set well with Becky. By her estimation, if that was the case, the pudding would surely be spoiled and full of botulism by now. We applied the sniff test and it seemed like the pudding smelled just as bland and flavorless as perfectly fresh packaged pudding.

By this time Becky had called John, Sunnie’s dad, asking him if she showed any signs of sickness. She was asleep and Becky asked John to look closely at her or maybe wake her to be sure she didn’t have a stomach ache. “We may have to take her and get her stomach pumped”, Becky announced. “That’s a little drastic, don’t you think?” I retorted. “Well, I mean if she acts sick in any way, or we can’t find out for sure what happened. There could be some drug or poison in the pudding”. I knew now that this mystery had to be solved fast, or my poor little granddaughter had a long night ahead of her.

We put all the pudding cups on the bar and looked closely at them. I couldn’t imagine any scenario in a factory that would put holes like that in them, but what do I know about mass produced pudding. After closer examination, I did see that the holes seemed to be in pairs of holes that were evenly spaced, as if a two pronged object had punctured the seal numerous times. There seemed to be no other pattern evident. “Becky, what do we have in the house that might make a pair of holes spaced about 3/16 of an inch apart?” She drew a blank. “Are you thinking one of the grandkids might have punched the holes?” she said. “Well, maybe. Ever so often a kid does something totally inexplicable”, I mused. I looked at the holes again, and I had a thought. “Do we still have some of those little corn-on-the-cob holders?” “Yeah, right here in this drawer” and Becky brought out 5 or 6 of the little yellow plastic and two-pronged handles shaped like little ears of corn.

I took one and lined it up with 2 of the holes. A perfect fit. I tried it on several holes, a perfect match each time. Becky’s eyes lit up and she started examining each of the holders. “There’s no sign of pudding on any of them.” She said. She looked in the sink and then came back and opened the drawer farther. Back toward the back she found one more, and holding it up we could see the telltale pudding residue on the two prongs. Becky went to the phone and called John to give him the all clear. “Do you think Sunnie did it? Tyler was in there about the same time that Sunnie was.” I wondered. “I really think Tyler has about outgrown these kinds of stunts, but I can tell when I ask them by their reaction.” Becky replied.

The next day Sunnie came in a little while after Becky got home from work. Becky went to the refrigerator and got out a pudding snack pack. She called Sunnie into the kitchen and said, “Sunnie, we found little tiny holes in these pudding packs. Do you have any idea what might have caused it?” And my poor little granddaughter didn’t say a word, but her eyes told all that we needed to know. Another case solved by CSI Wolfhill.