I made it into the estate without any trouble; no guards to evade, and it was a simple matter of using my Spire Jump to land on one of the points of the iron fence surrounding the estate. I quickly slipped inside the mansion where the eccentric lived and where the box was located. I knew what the box I was here to steal looked like... in hindsight its very appearance was a warning of what would happen if the box was ever opened, but one that was unheeded because almost nobody understood it. The box was fashioned of a black material, which was never identified. Its size and shape was that of a jewelry box that could easily fit in a medium-sized drawer. The sides of the box were inscribed with strange symbols which were assumed to be part of a long-dead language, and the top of the box had the image of a bizarre creature carved into it. The creature was a jumble of heads, tails, legs and arms. The strangest thing about it was that the eccentric claimed that the appearance of the creature changed each night, which seemed impossible. Needless to say, I found the box quickly... and then the lights came on... literally.
"Freeze, Cooper!" I knew that voice... "Inspector Fox!" "Surprised you, didn't I? Well, I've got another surprise for you!" As the Inspector said this, I heard the click of weapons being cocked in readiness to fire. Needless to say, I knew I was busted. Carmelita by herself had never been a problem when it came to making a getaway... but this time she wasn't alone. That's right, I waltzed right into a trap that had been set by Interpol. I later found out that the person who gave me the information necessary for the heist had been working for Interpol in exchange for not ending up behind bars for half a century. Needless to say, I wasn't in the position or the mood to trade remarks with the Inspector. I was quickly cuffed, and a few days later, I was booked for the heists I had pulled solo. Ironically, it turned out that the fact that Bentley and Murray had split for good after helping me escape from that helicopter had made it impossible to prosecute me for the heists we'd pulled together as the Cooper Gang.
2 months after that, I was already in jail, serving a sentence that I'd end up never finishing. I heard through the grapevine that there was a new inmate... one who had tried to steal the box that I had been after and succeeded... but gotten caught a few days later with the box on him. Carmelita had gotten promoted after capturing me and had been in charge of tracking down and arresting the culprit. Two good things came out of that for her; she made another big arrest, and nobody in the criminal made up stories about her having so-and-so for a lover... where so-and-so was always a male fox that had a criminal reputation of someone that half the inmates in the prison wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. (Not that Interpol or Carmelita cared about that.) Unfortunately for her, that happened because the culprit was a male fox, who had apparently knocked out half of the officers accompanying her, busted her shock pistol, and managed to get a few solid hits on her before being taken down by the rest of the accompanying officers, with emphasis on THE REST.
He ended up being put into a cell next to mine. Since I was in the maximum security part of the prison (due to my thieving reputation), it further reinforced what I'd heard. I had no idea what he'd been thinking, but I was sure he'd never forgive himself for making the mistake of attacking law enforcement officers... especially since he was going to be in prison for a lot longer than I was because of that. Unfortunately, I was wrong about that... what he was sorry about (and what those who know what happened once the box was opened) was that he'd failed to keep the box from being opened. What happened when the box was opened? It was the end of the world as we knew it...