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Dealing with Deception in Writing 293

No. Extract from the statement Comment Labels and
actions

1 On February 22, 1989, a bundle of 10’s totalling Was found = passive Bundle

5,000.00 dollars were found in locker #3, where my

cash drawer is kept.

2 The date stamped on the straps of the bundle is that Bundle
of the 31st of January 1989, on this day as on most
Tuesdays I am responsible for balancing the vault.

3 At approximately 2:00 p.m. I balanced the vault. FPSPT = committed

4 The currency is then placed in vault locker #5. Currency

5 If #5 is locked then the currency is placed in any Is placed = passive and Currency

open locker and locked, if I am doing the vault then I lack of commitment

will put it in locker #3.

6 I did not have a chance to find someone to tell them Out of sequence

before they went to the vault. statement

7 If I placed the bundle in locker #3 then it was there Bundles and currency Bundle

from the 31st of January until it was discovered on become ‘money’ when Money

the 22nd of February. I had no knowledge of the it is available for the

missing money cashier to spend

8 I’ve been with this bank for more than two years and
if in that time you are unaware of my trustworthiness
then I suggest we need to come to some sort of
agreement so this does not happen again.

Mr Sapir’s conclusions were: People who work in banks work with
‘currency’, ‘bundles’, etc. They do not
THE SOLUTION work with ‘money’. People cannot spend
‘currency’ or ‘bundles’. They can only spend
‘Please note the following: ‘money’. When the teller referred to the
‘missing money’, she incriminated herself.’
• Passive language + present tense =
“currency”.

• “I” + past tense = “bundle”.
• Missing = “money”

This is a good example of the change in labels2 which is typical of deception, but Mr Sapir
is not claiming it proves anything, nor even suggesting what should be done about it.

However, if you study the story in even more depth you will find – in addition to Mr Sapir’s
conclusions – a glaring unconscious mistake, of the Freudian slip variety, revealing that the
suspect knew the missing money was in her locker before it was discovered by others. The
suspect would find her own statement difficult to explain in an interview. Can you see what
it is? The answer is given at the end of this Chapter.

2 Nouns and pronouns