Case Files · No. 4 · Atlanta Police Department cold case 00-0031

Millennium Night

The fire panel says it went off at the stroke of midnight. The bank's own computer says otherwise.

$15USD · the complete case

Instant PDF download

Buy the case file

A gift? The download includes a printable gift card and a case folder label.

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Difficulty 4 of 5

Hard: red herrings to the end

group

1-6 players

made for two

schedule

150-180 minutes

Long case: a big evening: 2 hours or more

45 pages

Letter or A4 (42 pp), B&W fine

mail

3 sealed envelopes

one question each

fact_check

Answer checker

3 hints per question

folder_open

48 documents

1999 file + 2026 evidence

PG-13: a death, lies to the police, a theft, a cover-up. No sexual content, no gore. All people and places are made up.

The case

What's in the file

New Year's Eve, 1999. Chattahoochee National Bank keeps its Y2K Command Center running on the fourteenth floor all night, in case the computers fail at midnight. They don't. But at 12:40 a.m. firefighters find the bank's senior systems engineer dead in the basement tape vault. The fire system went off with him inside, and its printout says it happened at the stroke of midnight, in the year 1900.

The bank calls it the millennium bug. The police close the case.

2026. The bank's old computer tapes are being destroyed, and one is restored first: the mainframe's master log for that night. It doesn't match what the witnesses told police. The Cold Case Unit sends you the original file: the 1999 reports and statements, the bank's logs and printouts, and what the detective finds this week. Nobody tells you which pages matter.

check_circleThe 1999 file: police and fire reports, the medical examiner's report, witness statements, the bank's run sheet, phone and help desk printouts, the fire panel's strip, floor plans and the morning paper
check_circleThe restored system log from the bank's mainframe, printed on green-bar paper
check_circleThe 2026 investigation: the detective's memos, a pathologist's review, interview transcripts and the bank's own records, in two sealed envelopes
check_circleA working board to track suspects and the timeline
check_circleThe Final File: the whole story, a score page with detective ranks, and offline answers
check_circleExtras: a printable gift card and a case folder label
check_circleLetter and A4 versions

Look inside

Real pages from the case

Millennium Night: real printed pages from the case file on a desk — Real pages from the case file, printed at home: the morning paper, the detective's memo, the restore technician's letter and the first sealed envelope.

The Atlanta Ledger, Sunday, January 2, 2000

How it works

Three envelopes, three questions

STEP 1folder_open

Open the file

Print the case: reports, statements, logs, newspapers, photos. Read the detective's memo first.

STEP 2fact_check

Answer on the case page

Agree on an answer to the first question and type it on the case page, from any phone.

STEP 3mail

Open the next envelope

Right answer: open the next sealed envelope, with new evidence and a new question. Three envelopes, then the whole story and your score.

Questions

How many people can play? expand_more

One to six. The cases are made for two people at a kitchen table, and work just as well solo or with a few friends sharing the pages.

How long does a case take? expand_more

Every case shows its length. A Standard case takes about 90 minutes to two hours; a Long case two hours or more. Go at your own pace: you can stop between envelopes and pick it up another night.

Do I have to print it? expand_more

Printing is best: you'll want to spread the documents out side by side. Black and white is fine, Letter or A4. You can also play from a tablet or laptop.

Do we need the internet? expand_more

Only to check your answers and get hints on the case page, from any phone. No signal? The answers are printed upside down at the back of the Final File.

How hard is it? expand_more

Every case shows a difficulty from 1 to 5 and a length. Level 1 is a great first case; level 5 is for seasoned detectives. A Long case isn't trickier, it's a bigger file. Hints on the case page get anyone unstuck.

Is it scary? expand_more

No gore and nothing graphic. It's a real murder case, so expect a death, a cover-up and some 1980s teenage drinking. PG-13.

Can I give it as a gift? expand_more

Yes. The download includes a printable gift card to put in an envelope and a label for a manila folder, so the printed case looks like the real thing.