# Legality of Columbo's trick with the cigar box

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-columbos-trick-with-the-cigar-box/1013310>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\
**Created:** [January 23, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-columbos-trick-with-the-cigar-box/1013310 "2025-01-23T22:24:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 23

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**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-columbos-trick-with-the-cigar-box/1013310/23 "2025-01-23T20:11:56Z")

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> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> And yet at no point did Columbo demand that the suspect give a confession or else. Maybe Columbo could honestly say that he wasn’t completely sure if the suspect was guilty or not and simply wanted to see the suspect’s reaction.

And the perp says “I got tired of Columbo harassing me, and I saw a cheap way to get a small quantum of revenge by throwing his cigars overboard.”

Or

“I don’t know what he is talking about. I didn’t thrown any box overboard.” (For the youngsters here, these were the days when cameras weren’t everywhere.)

Speaking of confession and Criminal Intent’s Goren, I loved the episode with Jay O. Sanders as the OCD hitman. When Goren tried to intimidate him in the interrogation room, Sanders just sat there staring, didn’t make a reaction, didn’t say a thing. My hero!

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