After my wife’s office was burglarized, we expected to see broken glass and the absence of property. What we would not have expected to see were several small beads amongst the broken glass. Tiny cream-colored beads were spreading throughout the floor.
They had the appearance of millet or some kind of grain. When the police saw it, they could not identify the beads either. Therefore, we turned it all over to them as a precaution. Later, we learned that they were in fact not mysterious.
A Clue Within the Glass
Modern insulated, or dual-pane, windows are manufactured with a sleek metal spacer between the layers of glass. Inside that metal spacer, are desiccant beads – moisture absorbent beads to limit condensation between the layers of glass.
That was what littered the carpet!
When the front window was broken with a rock, it not only broke the glass but also ruptured the spacer framing. That ruptured the desiccant beads. As a result, some of them stuck to the broken shards. Other beads spread across the carpet.
The beads were not foraged by the thief, they were part of the window!
