The redoubtable Kip Williams sent the following comment re this post:
I remember having the same problem, albeit as a thought experiment, as you are having writing your novel. It happened when I was reading a Superman comic about Luthor or Toyman or somebody making "toys" that consisted of a realistic replica (and you know how realistic those could be in DC comics!) of a crime scene, complete with the crooks making one mistake that brought a toy Superman in to arrest them. The twist was that all they had to do was avoid that mistake, and they had a plan for a supposedly foolproof crime.And that's when it hit me. Do you want to be so realistic that you tell kids — or anybody — how to commit a crime? If you're not, you'll get snooty letters from knowitalls anxious to show their cleverness. Do you fudge over the details? What?
As I recall, I ended up without any firm answers. I'm personally okay with fictional plans that don't work in the real world, I guess. I did get a National Noid cover out of it — the one showing a crook escaping from a jail cell while watching a TV showing how to do it.
...which in turn reminds me of the "I've Been Here Before" episode of the old Car 54, Where Are You? TV series.
Crooks get ideas for crimes by watching a TV police show, taking careful notes to avoid doing the things that get the TV culprits caught.
Dimbulb Office Toody (Joe E. Ross) is also a big fan of the show, and he astonishes his fellow officers by figuring out the seemingly impossible to solve crimes.
However, when his superiors realize he's getting his solutions from a TV show, they also realize the crooks must be using the same show for pointers, so they contact the network which cancels the show and replaces it with a children's puppet program.
...and the next night the crooks try to rob a grocery store dressed in bunny costumes...
Kip adds:
It occurs to me, belatedly, that I've found the reason so many Star Trek plots resolved with the judicious application of Bolognium in the Bafflegab Matrix: They just don't want to give any ideas to criminals in the future. It's really pretty admirable.