About the odds of Columbo being in the house at the exact time the phone rang (for him to notice the light was out), that's the way so many of the eps were. For instance, how about in The Most Crucial Game, Columbo just happens to overhear Robert Culp speaking to Valerie Harper on the phone and puts it together?
Or how about in Swan Song, he overhears Johnny Cash talking on the phone and saying the Tabernacle building is not going to be built?
I don't know if we the viewers are supposed to think Columbo is very very bright and just figures out all these things by osmosis, or just happens to be a really really good eavesdropper! Carol