Crime Aid

"Crime Aid"
The Office episode
Michael begins the auction.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 5
Directed by	Jennifer Celotta
Written by	Charlie Grandy
Production code	505
Original air date	October 23, 2008[1]
Guest stars
Amy Ryan David Denman
Episode chronology
← Previous "Baby Shower" Next → "Employee Transfer"
List of The Office (U.S. TV series) episodes

"Crime Aid" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the show's seventy-seventh episode overall. The episode aired in the United States on October 23, 2008 on NBC.

In this episode, Michael and Holly allow the office to be robbed after having sex in the office and neglecting to lock the door, so they organize an auction to raise money. Meanwhile, Dwight insists Angela makes a decision between him and Andy.

Plot

Pam (Jenna Fischer) finds that living in New York has become too expensive. Michael (Steve Carell) assists her by getting her a job at the Dunder Mifflin corporate office.

It is revealed that Michael and Holly (Amy Ryan) are dating. One night, the two have sex in the stairwell in the office building and forget to lock the building door. As a result, thieves break in to the building and the Dunder Mifflin office and steal the computers and various other belongings. Realizing the robbery was their fault, Michael and Holly decide to set up an auction in the warehouse to raise money to match the value of items stolen. Jim (John Krasinski) finds a message from the night before on his work phone from an intoxicated Pam, who was out with friends at the time, and Jim jokingly remarks that she is the "future mother of my children".

Michael allows all the staff to auction off any item they choose. Holly decides to auction off a yoga lesson, which Michael is the only one to place a bid for, and Phyllis decides to auction off a hug. Darryl (Craig Robinson) auctions off an opportunity for someone to join him and the rest of the warehouse workers at a bar for beers at that exact moment. Michael tries to make a bid, but Darryl denies his bid, saying it would be a "conflict of interests". Jim makes a bid, which Darryl immediately accepts, and they leave. The auction seems to be a complete failure until CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley) arrives to help raise money by auctioning off a weekend at his place in Martha's Vineyard.

Meanwhile, Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Andy (Ed Helms) have set a date for their wedding, which upsets Dwight (Rainn Wilson). Phyllis (Phyllis Smith), knowing Dwight's connection with Angela, attempts to console him. She suggests that he give Angela an ultimatum: call off the wedding or lose out on him. Angela ultimately says no to Dwight, so he asks Phyllis for more advice. Phyllis tells him that since she rejected him and his ultimatum that he should move on. Dwight then becomes bitter towards Phyllis, but later realizes she was trying to help, so he shows his appreciation by bidding for her hug auction, which he loses to her husband Bob Vance (Robert R. Shafer). The hug actually sells for $1,000, after Bob outbids Andy, David Wallace and Dwight.

At the bar, Jim encounters Pam's ex Roy (David Denman), who joins him and the warehouse workers for some beers. Jim reveals to Roy that he is engaged to Pam, which Roy congratulates him on, and also mentions that Pam is at art school in New York. He tells Roy about the night before which she spent with friends, to which he responds that he thought Jim was her friend, visibly bothering him. Jim then decides to drive to New York to visit Pam, but just before he gets on I-80 to get to New York, turns around because he is "not that guy and [they're] not that couple".

The most anticipated item at the auction is a pair of front row Bruce Springsteen tickets from Michael, and when it becomes time to open the bid for them, Michael claims he cannot find them and tells everyone that they were stolen in the robbery. At the end of the episode, Michael tells Holly that he lied about the tickets being stolen and about the tickets in general, though Holly already figured he didn't have them. They kiss, catching the eye of a visibly displeased David Wallace, who says he was unaware that Michael and Holly were romantically involved.

Reception

"Crime Aid" was voted the tenth highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 8.35 out of 10.^[2] After the initial airing of the show, there were a flood of attempted creations of the Wikipedia entry Office Robbery Statistics, because of Michael's line "It is not known how many office robberies occur every second, because there is no Wikipedia entry for Office Robbery Statistics." Eventually, Office Robbery Statistics was redirected to this page, to prevent further attempted creations.

Trivia

C.R.I.M.E. A.I.D. stands for "Crime Reduces Innocence, Makes Everybody Angry, I Declare."

Michael again displays his lack of music knowledge when giving Darryl his list of Top 10 Bruce Springsteen songs. They included three by Huey Lewis and the News, "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman, and "Short People" by Randy Newman, all of which are drastically different from Springsteen's style of music (Tracy Chapman even being a different gender).

A goof: During the bidding scene, Jim bids on having a round of beers with Darryl and the warehouse guys. He gets up and leaves, but when the next prize up for bidding is Creed, you can see Jim sitting behind Creed.

References

1. ^ "The Office - Crime Aid". NBC Universal Media Village. http://nbcumv.com/listing_detail.nbc/nbc-20081023210000.html. Retrieved 2008-10-01. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Tan, Jennie (2009-05-19). "The Office Fan Ratings, Season 5". OfficeTally. http://www.officetally.com/the-office-highest-rated-episodes-season-5. Retrieved 2009-05-21.