[Mimino] 9 AM

[Mimino]

Melinda is sitting in a subway train. She fetches her mobile phone to check something. Seconds later, she calls the police.

[klondike mary]

Relevant where the subway is located? If so, US, UK, Europe, Asia, elsewhere?

[GalFisk]

Did she mean to call the police? Did she want to report a crime? Did she call them because of something she saw? If so, on the phone?

[Mimino]

klondike mary
Relevant where the subway is located? Not particularly If so, US, UK, Europe, Asia, elsewhere? Imagine what you prefer

GalFisk
Did she mean to call the police? Yes Did she want to report a crime? Yes Did she call them because of something she saw? Yes If so, on the phone? Yes

[Doriana]

Relevant what she wanted to check on her phone? If so, messages? e-mails? the time? the weather? her subway connection? social media?
Are other people relevant? If so, other people on the train?

[Mimino]

Doriana
Relevant what she wanted to check on her phone? Yes If so, messages? e-mails? This one the time? the weather? her subway connection? social media?
Are other people relevant? Yes If so, other people on the train? No

[biograd]

I assume it's relevant that she's on a subway train (as opposed to in a cafe eating lunch, or at work, or whatever)? If so, is it because she sees something outside the window of the train while passing by? If so, does she cross-reference what she saw with some information from the email, and make a connection in her mind that proves a crime has been committed? (or suggests a suspect for a crime she already knows about?)

[CoffeeBean]

I'm wondering if there's any connection with the episode of 'Twilight Zone' titled "4:00 PM"...

If she had checked the email while she was sitting on a park bench instead of in a subway, would she still have called the police?
Did she see something unexpected when she checked her phone? Or something expected?

[Mimino]

biograd
I assume it's relevant that she's on a subway train (as opposed to in a cafe eating lunch, or at work, or whatever)? Yes, as opposed to some other locations If so, is it because she sees something outside the window of the train while passing by? No If so, does she cross-reference what she saw with some information from the email, so, n/a (and slight FA) and make a connection in her mind that proves a crime has been committed? but yes (or suggests a suspect for a crime she already knows about? No)

CoffeeBean
I'm wondering if there's any connection with the episode of 'Twilight Zone' titled "4:00 PM"... - Did not watch, so I can't tell. But somehow the song "9 AM in a New York subway" came to my mind when I posted the puzzle.

If she had checked the email while she was sitting on a park bench instead of in a subway, would she still have called the police? Given all other circumstances are the same way, yes.
Did she see something unexpected when she checked her phone? Yes Or something expected? Yes

[WiZ]

Was she tipped off by something in her inbox? If so, was it the content of a message? A subject line? The timing of a message? The sender? Was someone she knew involved in the crime? If so, as perpetrator? Victim?

[Mimino]

WiZ
Was she tipped off by something in her inbox? Yes If so, was it the content of a message? No A subject line? No The timing of a message? Yes(ish) The sender? No Was someone she knew involved in the crime? No If so, as perpetrator? Victim?

[biograd]

Was it the fact that she received an email at all (at that time) the relevant aspect? Was she somewhere where the cellular signal was poor, where she usually cannot get emails? Did she receive a "reply" to a message that she hadn't even sent yet?

Was the crime she discovered related to identity theft? hacking of her email account? something related to her cell phone plan/carrier?

[Mimino]

biograd
Was it the fact that she received an email at all (at that time) the relevant aspect? No Was she somewhere where the cellular signal was poor, where she usually cannot get emails? No Did she receive a "reply" to a message that she hadn't even sent yet? No

Was the crime she discovered related to identity theft? No hacking of her email account? No something related to her cell phone plan/carrier? No

[GalFisk]

Was the email written by a human? Sent by a human? Sent only to her? Subway phone/wifi reception relevant? Or lack thereof?

[Mimino]

GalFisk
Was the email written by a human? Yes (but irrelevant) Sent by a human? Yes (but irrelevant) Sent only to her? Yes (but irrelevant) Subway phone/wifi reception relevant? No Or lack thereof? No

[Mimino]

RECAP
Melinda is sitting in a subway train when she receives an e-mail on her mobile phone. This makes her call the police immediately.
Neither the content nor the sender of the e-mail are relevant. (Let's say the mail was related to her job which is completely irrelevant for this puzzle.)
It was not unexpected for her to receive a mail like that. Neither was it unexpected to receive a mail while sitting in a subway train. The wi-fi connection was normal.

[Doriana]

Are any ads relevant that she sees while checking her e-mail?

[GalFisk]

Would the puzzle work if:
She was on an above ground train? On a bus? On a walk?
If she got an SMS instead of an email? If she got an email from a different sender? With a different subject? At a different time? Is the crime related to computers? Phones? Telecommunications? Does she ask the police to go somewhere? If so: the subway? A specific station? To stop or intercept the train she's on? Or another train? To go to her home? Her workplace? WAG: are emails not supposed to go to her phone at all, and will only do do when something's wrong?

[Mimino]

Doriana
Are any ads relevant that she sees while checking her e-mail? No

GalFisk
Would the puzzle work if:
She was on an above ground train? Yes On a bus? Yes On a walk? Yes
If she got an SMS instead of an email? No! good question If she got an email from a different sender? Yes With a different subject? Yes At a different time? As long as it would have been while she was travelling, yes Is the crime related to computers? No Phones? No Telecommunications? No Does she ask the police to go somewhere? Yes If so: the subway? No A specific station? No To stop or intercept the train she's on? No Or another train? No To go to her home? Yes Her workplace? Yes WAG: are emails not supposed to go to her phone at all, and will only do do when something's wrong? No, she expected to receive e-mails, that's why she checked her phone.

[Earnest]

Is the title of the e-mail relevant? The sender (police? bank? a shop? a privaate persson? a website? others?)? Spam relevant? Is any sound relevant? Hacking? Is her job relevant?
Can we assume that she uses google mail? Was there somehing relevantly attached to the e-mail? A picture? A pdf?

Did she fetch the phone only to check the e-mails? Did she expect to receive an e-mail in particular? A confirmation e-mail? If she expected to receive an e-mail, was the e-mail from a shop? Did she register to something relevantly? Is she a youtube video maker? Did she work online?

Crime committed = crime committed against her? Copyright relevant? Privacy? Data collection without permission? A murder? A minor crime?

[GalFisk]

Was she expecting a crime? Is her workplace also her home? If she saw no email, would she not call the police? If she saw no email, would it be because none were sent to her? Does she know who perpetrated the crime? Are other people involved besides her, the criminal(s) and the cops?

[Mimino]

Earnest
Is the title of the e-mail relevant? No The sender No (police? bank? a shop? a privaate persson? a website? others? A co-worker, it was a job-related mail, but irrelevant)? Spam relevant? No Is any sound relevant? No Hacking? No Is her job relevant? Only one aspect of it
Can we assume that she uses google mail? No Was there somehing relevantly attached to the e-mail? No A picture? No A pdf? No

Did she fetch the phone only to check the e-mails? Yes Did she expect to receive an e-mail in particular? Not a particular mail, but she thought it likely to have received some job-related mails in the meanwhile A confirmation e-mail? If she expected to receive an e-mail, was the e-mail from a shop? Would also work with e-mails of that kind, but the exact content of the mail is irrelevant Did she register to something relevantly? No, not relevantly Is she a youtube video maker? No Did she work online? When she fetched the phone? Well, she wanted to check for work-related e-mails, if that counts as working

Crime committed = crime committed against her? Yes Copyright relevant? No Privacy? No Data collection without permission? No A murder? No A minor crime? Define minor

GalFisk
Was she expecting a crime? Yes Is her workplace also her home? Yes If she saw no email, would she not call the police? Correct If she saw no email, would it be because none were sent to her? Well, most likely Does she know who perpetrated the crime? No Are other people involved besides her, the criminal(s) and the cops? Apart from the sender of the mail, whose single role in the story is that he sent the mail, no

[biograd]

When you say she was "expecting a crime", do you mean that she suspected that a crime had taken place, due to some earlier observations, but then those suspicions were only fully confirmed when she received the email? Or do you mean that she was actually doing something actively to instigate or otherwise "attract" crime to herself?

I'm gathering from your mention of a "single role in the story" that the sender of the email was purely passively and unwittingly involved in the sequence of events (i.e. in no way connected with the criminal(s), purposely tipping her off about the crime, also a victim, etc.)?

Would receiving any work-related email in that time have led to her having evidence of this crime (regardless of sender or content)? Does it matter what email account she received the mail in (e.g. a mail that would normally go to her work email went to her personal email)?

[Mimino]

Biograd
When you say she was "expecting a crime", do you mean that she suspected that a crime had taken place, due to some earlier observations, but then those suspicions were only fully confirmed when she received the email? She suspected a crime either has happened or is just about to happen. She did not have any prior information, just the e-mail is relevant Or do you mean that she was actually doing something actively to instigate or otherwise "attract" crime to herself? No, nothing like this

I'm gathering from your mention of a "single role in the story" that the sender of the email was purely passively and unwittingly involved in the sequence of events (i.e. in no way connected with the criminal(s), purposely tipping her off about the crime, also a victim, etc.)? Correct. The sender of the mail was not involved in the crime, neither as perpetrator, nor as victim, nor as witness. We may safely assume that he did not know about the crime at all.

Would receiving any work-related email in that time have led to her having evidence of this crime (regardless of sender or content)? Yes Does it matter what email account she received the mail in (e.g. a mail that would normally go to her work email went to her personal email)? No

[Mimino]

For the benefit of the public here a
RECAP
Melinda calls the police because an e-mail she received on her mobile phone made her suspect that a crime is going on or has just recently happened. She asks the police to go to her home, which is at the same time also her workplace.
The content of the mail, its sender, its context are all irrelevant. In fact, Melinda did not even take time to read it.
The nature of the crime has not yet been established, although we know that it is not murder, neither anything related to identity theft or cyber crime.
It is somewhat relevant that it works with an e-mail but would not work with an SMS.

[wolfier]

That something with an email but not SMS - email filters? Spam folder? scheduled send? the ability to be forwarded? that you need a login?

WAG: she left her computer on at home with the email client, so any new email that arrives would automatically be marked as "Read", but it shows on her phone as bing "Unread", therefore she suspects that somebody broke into her home and stole the computer?

[Mimino]

wolfier
That something with an email but not SMS - email filters? Spam folder? scheduled send? the ability to be forwarded? that you need a login? None of these

WAG: she left her computer on at home with the email client Correct, so any new email that arrives would automatically be marked as "Read" but No, it would be marked unread when it comes in, but it shows on her phone as being "Unread" Yope , therefore she suspects that somebody broke into her home Correct and stole the computer Not necessarily but possibly?

Good progress, now put the things together.

[Acridian9]

So, the mail was marked as "Read", and she understood someone had used her computer at home?

[Mimino]

Acridian9
So, the mail was marked as "Read", and she understood someone had used her computer at home? Exactly

[Mimino]

SPOILER
Melinda was working from home, as many of us do these days. She grew hungry and decided to go downtown to grab some food. As she did not plan to stay away for long she did not switch off her computer. On her way back she fetched her mobile phone to check for e-mails that might have come in since then. She saw a notifcation of a new e-mail which all of sudden disappeared. Thatcould only mean that at this very moment someone in her house had opened that mail on her computer. Which meant, that someone is in her house. A good moment to call the police.

Thanks to all and congrats to Acridian for the finishing move.

[irishelk]

Good one!