Inside each building on alternate squares are two-digit numbers that indicate where the thief can end his movement, with four or five of them being in red to indicate a potential crime scene.

The display shows the building (1-4) or street (5-8) the thief is currently located along with two letters designating the last action the thief took; the scanner also plays a sound whenever the thief performs these actions: In addition to the On and Off buttons and ten buttons numbered 0–9, there are three other buttons of importance: In addition to the detective tokens, dice, board, and Crime Scanner, the game also contains eight Detective Licenses, ten Wanted Posters, play money (in denominations of $500, $100, and $50) and a deck of Sleuth Cards.

After a roll of the dice determines who goes first, the player who starts turns on the Crime Scanner by pressing the On button twice.

The scanner will play a sound (alarm) that starts the game and displays either the building (1-4) or street (5-8) on which the crime was committed along with the letters "Cr" to show the thief's action.

The player rolls the dice and moves his piece in the direction of what he believes to be the thief's current location.

After a momentary pause, the result is given: In addition to being used for entering an arrest code, the number buttons also can be pressed to hear up to the last ten actions the thief committed (choosing not to move is not included).