Paulos applies probability to the law, using a case from Los Angeles in 1964 as his basis of proof. The scenario is a blonde woman with a ponytail snatched a purse from another woman. The thief fled and escaped into a yellow car driven by a black man with a mustache. Police found a couple who matched the description and convicted them despite lacking hard evidence to link the couple to the crime. With the facts of the case agreed upon by all parties, the prosecutor used probability to achieve a guilty verdict. The chances of each fact occurring are as follows: yellow car 1/10, man with mustache 1/4, woman with ponytail 1/10, blonde woman 1/3, black man with beard 1/10, interracial couple in car 1/1,000. By multiplying the fractions, the probability of all the conditions being met is 1/12,000,000. Therefore, the couple in question must be guilty since the odds of another couple meeting the criteria is so low.
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