Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Dragmen.
You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned to burglary detail.
In the past two months, a thief has broken into 18 markets.
There's no lead to his whereabouts, no clue to his identity.
Your job, get him.
It was Monday, December 14th.
It was cold in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out a burglary detail.
My partner's Frank Smith.
The boss is Captain Bernard.
My name's Friday.
We're on our way out of the office.
It was 8.05 a.m. when we got to Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau.
Sergeant Lindsay Simmons' office.
Yeah?
Well, did you give it to him?
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
What'd he say?
Yeah.
When did he come back?
Uh-huh.
Well, did he have it for you?
Yeah.
Well, that'll teach you not to go that route anymore.
All right, Patrick, tell the sergeant to call me when he gets back.
Right.
Hi, Friday Smith.
Hi, Lindsay.
Good morning, Sergeant.
Just talked to Gene Patrick over in Highland Park.
You know him?
Yeah, I met him a couple of times.
Picked up a youngster a couple of days ago in suspicion of burglary who brought him into
the office and Patrick talked to him.
Yeah.
Well, he finally bought it that the kid didn't have anything to do with the thefts.
He told him to go home.
Uh-huh.
Kid told Gene he didn't have the money to get home, so Gene gave him 20 cents.
Kid swore he'd come in and pay it back.
Did he?
Yeah, he came in this morning and gave Patrick two dimes.
He told him thanks for believing the story.
Uh-huh.
Then Patrick got the kicker.
The kid really did break into a house last night to get the money.
What's Patrick got to say about that?
He says the kid's honest in a sort of way.
He did pay him back.
Where's the youngster now?
Got him over in Highland Park Juvenile.
I better call Gene.
Maybe I can give him a hand, I got a couple of street car tokens he won't be using.
Might like to have them.
Oh, hold it.
If I was you, I don't think I'd bring it up to him for a couple of days.
Well, what can I do for you two?
Well, Lindsay, we've been working on a string of burglaries.
You maybe got the word on them.
I don't think so.
What's the story?
Bunch of store burglaries.
The papers have tagged them, the milk bottle jobs.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it seems Hardcroft was telling me something about them the other day.
And where'd we come in?
Well, the way the jobs look, we've been thinking they maybe belong in your department instead
of ours.
How you figure that?
First off, the milk thing.
What do you mean?
Every job he's pulled, we found an empty milk bottle on the counter.
Okay, what's that prove?
Well, milk and kids go together.
Sure, so do milk and ulcers.
Maybe your thief's got the bull horrors when he gets into the store.
No, Lindsay, there's another thing.
The way he prowls the places, all he takes is petty cash, just a couple of bucks outside.
Candy, cigarettes, nothing big.
Some of the places he's gone into, you could open the safe with a pocket knife.
He hasn't even made a move toward them.
Maybe he's a kleptomaniac.
Got a lot of them on the books.
Maybe that's the way he gets his kicks.
Oh, that's a nice try, Lindsay.
If you know anybody that can climb through a 14 by 10 inch hole, you trot them up and
we'll talk to them.
Okay, I haven't got the names on my desk, but you take a trip to Santa Anita, you'll
meet a lot of them.
Jockeys.
You guys know we'll go along with you on this thing.
Anything we can do, but until we're sure that there's a juvenile involved, there's nothing
we can do.
Anything turns up, we'll be sure to turn it over to you.
Now look, we're not trying to palm this thing off on you, Lindsay.
We've had the stats office make so many runs on small adults that the cards are wearing
out.
It just seems that none of the leads we've been chasing come out anywhere.
We figured that maybe you could come up with some answers for us.
Well, that's a new one on me, Joe, this milk bit.
I've heard of a couple of thieves that went for it, but I can't name you a juvenile offhand.
I'll pass the word around to Daywatch, see what they can come up with.
I'll leave a note for Heartgrove, he can pass it on to Nightwatch.
Well, I appreciate anything you can do.
No trouble.
Been running your ragged on this, huh?
Pretty rough.
Just that we can't seem to be able to come up with anything that adds.
Yeah.
Oh, excuse me.
Yeah.
Georgia Street juvenile, Sergeant Simmons.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're here.
Which one?
Okay, hang on.
For you, Joe, your office.
Thank you.
Yeah, Friday talking.
Yeah.
Well, right away, what's the address?
Uh-huh, yeah.
No, I got it.
We'll leave right away.
Who?
Yeah, call them.
Thanks.
Well, come on, let's go.
The milk bottle kid, he hit again.
The call had come from Lieutenant Ginder in Burglary.
He told us that he'd just gotten a call from a storekeeper named Marty Dera-Birdes.
The man had called to report a burglary at his store at the corner of Jackson and Broadway
streets.
Lieutenant Ginder told us that the crime lab had been closed for the night.
He said that he'd been in the area for a few days.