"Okay, just calm down, sir," Judy encouraged a frantic moose. "The ZPD is here to help."
"Okay, okay, I'm calming down," the moose said, wringing his hands. "It's just- I've never been robbed before, and by such brazen criminals! Ooh, it was terrifying."
"We can appreciate that," Nick nodded. "What species were the thieves?"
"Uh, well, I don't want to sound speciesist or anything..." the moose said with caution. "There were three of them, and uh, I think they were raccoons. They had dark form-fitting suits on, but I could kind of see the tails coming out of them?"
"The security footage should bear that out," Judy nodded.
"It's not speciesist to identify your attackers, sir," Nick tried not to sigh.
The moose shook his head. "I know, but you know raccoons are always getting called thieves, I just... oh goodness, it was scary. All three of 'em were waving around stun guns and yelled that they had them set to 'elephant'. I got behind one of the counters and cowered while they smashed the displays and took the jewelry."
"Okay sir, um..." Judy produced a form and a pen, "I can see that you're distraught, perhaps you'd like to write down a statement while Officer Wilde and I case the scene of the crime?"
"O-okay, sure," the moose said, taking the form and paper.
Nick and Judy began to put on some boots.
"Ugh, I hate wearing footwear," Nick grumbled. "Our boots are always so tight around my claws."
"Would that be more uncomfortable than getting glass shards in your foot paws, Nick?" Judy smirked.
"A fair point, rabbit," Nick chuckled. The two entered the jewelry shop. Nearly all of the displays were empty and smashed, with glass littering the floor.
"What a wreck," Judy shook her head.
"Looking through a small mountain of glass shards for some hairs from our perpetrators should be 'fun'," Nick huffed.
"Hopefully they dropped any, considering only their tails were showing," Judy said, beginning to search. "Maybe we'll get lucky and one of their tails brushed the counter or something."
"Mm," Nick nodded, also searching for clues.
"Hey Nick," Judy began with a curious edge in her voice. "Why do you think criminals commit crimes, anyway?"
Nick blinked and gave Judy a baffled look at this question. He smirked after a few minutes and his voice began in a jaunty tone: "Hello, and thank you for tuning in to KFOX radio, where we answer all of your philosophical questions with a fox! Unfortunately, this station is being taken off the air due to lack of interest in a fox's opinion on morals."
Judy's eyes fell halfway and she smirked. "Oh come on, Nick. Can't you give me some insight into the criminal mind? You were a criminal, after all."
"Okay, first of all, that is uncalled for," Nick said, holding up a finger, then he added another one. "And second, I wasn't technically a 'criminal'. I was in a legal gray area."
"Alright already, sheesh, sorry I asked," Judy chuckled. "Hey, I think I found a hair!" She picked it up with tweezers and put it into a small evidence bag. "Hopefully we can find a few more and ID all of our perps."
"Think they'll be in the system?" Nick asked, peeking into a display case. "Ah, I found one too." He bagged it.
"If they have stun guns that can go up to 'elephant', I'm pretty sure they're repeat offenders," Judy said. "Standard consumer ones can't go that high as a safety measure."
Nick chuckled. "So what are consumers supposed to do in case of elephant attack? Throw the gun at them?"
"You got me," Judy shrugged, letting out a nervous laugh.
There was a lull in the conversation as the two scraped through more and more broken glass, systematically looking through the jewelry store. Nick watched how earnestly and carefully Judy was working, and his eyes broke away for a few minutes to gather his thoughts.
"Criminals," Nick began. "They... probably commit crimes because it's easy, in a way."
"Easy?" Judy's ears moved in Nick's direction as she hadn't expected him to pipe up. "You think so?"
"Well, certainly easier than what we're doing," Nick chuckled. He gestured to a broken display. "You ever think much about what it takes to fill one of those?"
"Um, can't say I have; I don't really own any jewelry," Judy chuckled. "Big bunny families and extravagant rocks don't mix well."
"Ah, hadn't thought of that," Nick nodded. "Well, first you have whoever mines the stone, then you have more mammals that have to appraise the gem, polish it, cut it, set it, sell it... all sorts of people work hard to bring something like that into being."
"And a criminal doesn't think about any of those people, they just see something and want it," Judy said.
"Yeah, or more likely they want money from reselling it," Nick said, stroking his chin. "What if you had a button you could push that meant that you got a million dollars, but it meant that mammals you had never seen before in your life and you never would see would be missing money because you pressed it. Would you press it?"
"Uh..." Judy blinked. "If I knew that I'd be stealing from others-"
"That's the problem!" Nick interrupted with an accusing smirk, pointing at her. "You're thinking about others! Criminals are selfish; only look out for themselves. You can bet they'd be mashing that button. As long as they can justify to themselves that the people involved don't matter to them. And the ease of that I guess depends on the mammal."
"That makes sense," Judy nodded, sweeping some glass out of the way with a brush. "Crimes of opportunity. The easier a crime is to do, the more likely someone with poor morals is to do it..."
"Sure as heck is harder to clean up the mess," Nick chuckled. "We work for almost peanuts to basically be plumbers for this city, cleaning out the sewage clogging it."
"Somewhat cynical, but I can see that," Judy chuckled. "You don't regret it though, do you? Being a cop?"
"Not for a second," Nick shook his head. "That's part of why I never really thought of myself as a 'criminal'. If someone fell for my charms, it was their own fault, right?" Judy sucked her teeth, but grinned at him. "Having a criminal mind, it's... different, you know? It's cold. Like the moose said there were three perps here, right? What if one of them gets paranoid of the others? What if one of them 'outlives' their usefulness? What if one of them wants all of the loot to themselves? Kkccht!" Nick drew a finger across his neck. "The trio would be down to two. Or even one."
Judy developed a very serious look. "Fear. Treachery. Bloodlust."
"What little criminals are made of," Nick smirked.
"They were also the forces that governed our world before mammals were enlightened," Judy looked down at the ground. "Do you think that some mammals are just more enlightened than others?" She shook her hands. "I mean, not like on a species basis, like on an individual basis?"
"I can't say, Officer Hopps," Nick frowned. "I think I believe that it's up to a person's self-determination to choose to be bad... at least that's what I hope. I 'chose' to be a hustler, after all."
"Right," Judy nodded. "What Mr. Big said about us... that deep down, we're all still animals... I wonder if that has some truth to it."
"Manners, Judy," Nick closed his eyes and shook his index finger. "That's what separates us from the animals."
"Mm," Judy smiled and chuckled. Then, her face became serious again. "Nick, do you think... do you think I'm selfish?"
Nick blinked. "Whoa, where's that coming from?"
"Just answer the question," Judy rolled her eyes and continued working.
"You want me to be honest with you?" Nick chuckled.
Judy looked at him with a face of utmost seriousness. "Nick, I always want you to be honest with me. Even if it hurts- especially if it hurts."
"O-oh... okay?" Nick's eyes widened. "This is getting a bit heavy for a little robbery... heh..."
Judy looked away and continued working quietly. Nick made a troubled face; he wasn't really sure whether he wanted to answer the question.
"Well, to be honest then, at first I did think you were selfish," Nick admitted. "I thought you were maybe even kind of a joke? Like 'hey look at me! I'm a bunny! Look at what I can do! I can be a police officer!'"
"That's..." Judy had a wry smile, "not entirely unfair."
"But over the time of that Night Howler case," Nick went on, "you risked your life for me more than once. Just some rouge-colored rogue fox you picked up off the street. And at the bridge... wow. You came all that way from your family farm on a hunch that you could try to make things right with predators. You're not selfish, Fluff. You're selfless."
"Heh... all part of the job, I guess," Judy shrugged her shoulders and had an uncharacteristically bashful smile.
"Yeah, that's a load of sewage," Nick said, smirking. "You're uncommonly brave and righteous."
"Aw, Nick..." Judy chuckled.
"Also uncommonly crazy," Nick added.
"There we go," Judy laughed. "I was afraid of you going too soft on me."
Nick chuckled. "I'll always be hard on- okay and my muzzle just was going to keep on going there." Nick rolled his eyes away from Judy.
"Well now!" Judy laughed. Nick grumbled.
Judy and Nick entered Chief Bogo's office. He looked up, putting his glasses on.
"Ah, Wilde. Hopps," Bogo nodded. "What did you find from the Glimmergem jewelry store?"
"Our report, Chief!" Judy said proudly, handing in the case file.
"The three raccoons were indeed repeat offenders," Nick said. "Dr. Pedshark confirmed their DNA for us."
"Mm, I see," Chief Bogo stroked his chin. "These three call themselves the 'Banded Bandits', a team of notorious raccoon thieves. Doing their species a disservice."
"No argument there, sir," Nick nodded his agreement.
"I'm going to take the two of you off this case," Chief Bogo said abruptly.
"Very well, sir," Judy nodded, folding her hands behind her back.
Chief Bogo's eyes widened. He spoke with an incredulous voice: "What, no argument? No 'I'm going to take this case and there's nothing you can do to stop me?'"
Judy laughed lightly. "Well, sir, I'd like to think I learned a little bit from the Night Howler case. About limitations and all that."
"I'm sure you've got a good reason," Nick shrugged.
"Indeed," Chief Bogo huffed, becoming serious again. "Those three have stun guns that are incredibly dangerous. I'll be putting Officers Trunkaby and McHorn on the case. They'll be less likely to become casualties if they are to be hit."
"That seems like a prudent decision, sir," Judy smiled.
Chief Bogo narrowed his eyes. "What's with you two...? You're being awfully pleasant for two constant tiny thorns in my side. What gives...?"
Judy and Nick shot each other amused, wide eyed looks, smiles creeping over their faces.
"All right, I demand to know what's going on," Bogo looked back to his desk. "Did you booby trap my seat or something? Is there anything weird in my drawers?" He looked through them all and then shot another suspicious look at the two. "I'm onto you two. Now what did you do!?"
"Pft..." Judy put a hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.
Nick shrugged his shoulders and winked at judy.
"Hopps! Wilde!" Chief Bogo thrust a finger at them. "Don't mess with me!"