 Ladies and gentlemen the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent drag men Your 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 Frank Smith The boss is Captain Bernard. My name's Friday. We're on our way out of the office. It was 8 0 5 a.m.. We got to Georgia Street juvenile bureau Sergeant Lindsay Simmons office Yeah Well, did you give it to him? Uh-huh Yeah, what do you say? Yeah When he come back Uh-huh. Well, did he have it for you? Yeah, well, I'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. Oh, yeah, what is it? I just talking to Jean Patrick over in Harlem Park. You know him? Yeah, I met him a couple times picked up a youngster a couple of days ago and suspicion of burglary 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 me to go home. Uh-huh kid told jeannie didn't have the money to get home So jean gave him 20 cents kid swore he'd come in and pay it back. Did he yeah, he came in this morning gave Patrick two dimes Tell them thanks for believing the story. Mm-hmm Then Patrick got the kicker kid really did break into a house last night to get the money What's Patrick got to say about that says the kids honest in a sort of way did pay him back Where's the youngster now got him over Harlem Park juvenile. I better call jean Maybe I can give him a hand. I got a couple of streetcar tokens I won't be using might like to happen. I'll 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 too? Well, when see we've been working on a string of burgers You maybe got the word on them. I don't think so. What's the story bunch of store burglaries papers attack them the milk bottle job Oh, yeah, yeah seems hard to overstone me something about in the other day And what we come in well the way the jobs look we've been thinking to maybe belong in your department instead of ours I 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 proof? Well, milk and kids go together sure sort of milk and ulcers Maybe your thieves got the bull hires 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 for the pocket knife He hasn't even made a move toward him. Maybe he's a kleptomaniac got a lot of them on the books Maybe that's the way he gets his kicks Oh, it's a nice try Lindsay if you know anybody that can climb through a 14 by 10 inch hole You trot him up and we'll talk to him. Okay. I haven't got the names on my desk But you take a trip to San 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 over to you 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 add-alts that the cards are wearing out It just seems that none of the leads we've been chasing come out of anywhere I figured that maybe you could come up with some answers for us. That's a new one on me Joe this milk bet 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 the day watch see what they can come up with I'll leave a note for heart growth We can pass it on the night watch. Well, I appreciate anything 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 Joe and the sergeant Simmons. Yeah, yeah, they're here. Which one? Okay, hang on For you Joe your office. Thank you Friday talking Yeah Right away. What's the address? Yeah, so I got it. We'll leave right away. Oh, yeah, call them Thanks Come on. Let's go the milk bottle kitty hit again The call had come from Lieutenant Ginder in burglary He told us that he just gotten a call from a storekeeper named Marty Darro Burtis The man had called to report a burglary at his store at the corner of Jackson and Broadway Street Lieutenant Ginder told us that the crime lab had been notified and had dispatched a crew to investigate the premises for physical evidence Frank and I left Georgia Street juvenile. We drove over to figure out then we turned over on the Broadway The store that had been broken into was a small Italian delicatessen on the southeast corner The time we got there the crime lab crew had already arrived and was winding up their investigation We walked into the place and we met with Ray Pinker That's y'all Frank. All right. How's it going? The usual thing bottle of milk on the counter. Do you want to check it over? Yeah, come on back here Chief made his entrance back here at rear of the store There it is broke out the window pane. Yeah, not very big Measures nine and a half of 12 and three quarters no alarm on the window, huh? Yeah, you can see the wires here. Take a look Oh, yeah How come the alarm didn't go off? I talked to the owner. He said he's had trouble with the alarm system last couple of weeks called the company and asked him to fix it Mm-hmm. He thought it was okay Guess there's something wrong someplace didn't work last night. What kind of alarm was it right outside on the building You know the kind yeah, what do you take this time? They use your honest stuff according to the owner about four cartons of cigarettes missing several boxes of candy Can't be absolutely sure so he's got to check his stock. You better be talking him on there. Yeah, we will we'll catch him later Well, wait a minute. I'll check and see how the boys are doing on the Prince had him check the counter in the milk bottle All right, thanks, Ray. You're right back. All right I wonder when we're gonna blow the whistle on this guy. I don't know can't do it fast enough for me Hey Joe, look at this Yeah, I'd like to get a couple of those for we leave What are you talking about Salami Joe those right there the heart Italian kind see right there. Yeah, I remember last summer I was up in San Francisco. Yeah, I remember one up there to pick up a prisoner. Remember you were collecting days off Yeah, I recall I had a hundred of them coming. Yeah, pretty funny. Anyway, I met Dan Shelley up there You mean the Irish tenor? Yeah, he and I went down to cookie's bar for lunch cookie had some of this salami sliced it like paper It almost read through it. That's the way it's supposed to be. I know Joe Anyway, cookie sliced up a bunch of it served it with cold cracked crab boy I never tasted anything so good in my life. Don't you ever read the newspaper through sliced salami? Yeah, I never have have you All the time just the funnies. Well, anyway phase tried to find them for me salami like this brought home all kind of things But she's never found the right kind You know, they'd be hard enough to pound tax with them. She got them home. Oh, hey never forget old cookie and that's bread Well, if you can get your mind off food for a minute, and I know that'll be tough. Let's get on with this thing Yeah, sure got to buy some of these for we leave It's like cookie head. Yeah, especially the powder Joe. Yeah Nothing whoever was drank the milk. He took the bottle out of the refrigeration compartment bottles sweat it and there's no print on it We can live None of many places. No, we've gone over the place from top to bottom. So there we can't find them It's not much help is it came up with one thing? Maybe you can make something out of it What's that? Outside the window on the back parking lot came up an open package of cigarettes. Don't know if it belonged to the thief anything on it No fog last night ruined any prints around it boys have got it if you want. Well, we'll take a look at it Looks like everything's against us. Huh another blank. Don't envy you guys trying to break this one Most of the time is a leak someplace somewhere along the line the guy's gonna make a mistake and not cover something Yeah, we've been saying that for weeks. This is either the smartest thief I've ever seen or the luckiest Let's just make for him number 19 Lot of chances to take for nothing. He's not getting anything out of the jobs. Maybe he isn't but we are what headaches 938 a.m. We talked to the victim. He told us that his nearest he could figure there was approximately four dollars stolen from the store We went on to say that he'd ascertained that five cartons of cigarettes and several boxes of candy bars were taken He was unable to tell us if any other merchandise was taken until he made a complete inventory You want on to tell us that there was over six hundred dollars in the safe But that as far as he could tell it'd been no attempt to break into it We made a canvas of the neighborhood and talked to the neighbors None of them recalled having seen any suspicious people in the neighborhood the night before none of them had seen any Suspicious automobiles in the area the one thing that was apparent was that the thief was working in a definite pattern They worked only on Friday and Saturday night always between 8 p.m. And 12 midnight Frank and I met with Captain Bernard and it was decided that we would maintain a rolling stake out in the area In which the suspect operated four other cars from Metro reserves were assigned to work with us The next five nights we worked without results was slow and tedious Considering the lack of information on the thief. It was the only way we had left We had to be on or near the scene when the thief struck again Saturday night December 19th Frank and I met and drove out to the area the streets were crowded with early Christmas shoppers I'll sure be glad when it's over why what's matter how many rooms in your apartment Joe Three you know that you've been there. Yeah, that won't be enough room. What are you talking about? Hey What's they got to do with this hack Joe real hack boy? What's the matter? I got up this morning. I felt great They's got breakfast on the table all nice couple eggs little pig sausages nice, you know, yeah I come down to the table. She's got the food on and I hit her with it What the food no Joe I hit her with what I'm about to tell her I tell her I'm gonna have to work tonight You worked every night this week. What's wrong with that? Oh, that's the way I figure it so I got a way out. You have a Today is phase birthday. You didn't tell me. It's not good to tell people Joe. Oh, it isn't no phase over 30 Yeah, I kind of figured that don't you get it? I'm sorry pal. You left me a couple of blocks back on this one. Look, I may never catch up phase over 30 Joe She's getting to the point where she's taking off here. See how can you give a person a last birthday present? Yeah I tell you about it. You're gonna give her a present only now instead of 30. She's 29. You understand? Well, it'd be perfectly honest with you know, but as long as you do it's perfectly all right with me Yeah, what about this morning? Well, I told her I was gonna have to go to work I got this present for her brand new deep fat fryer real good. Well wrapped up deep fat fryer All wrapped up with ribbon beautiful shiny beautiful So you gave it to us. Did it do any good? Not a pound. You know what she does with it? Well at this point, I wouldn't even want to guess I'm serious Joe. This may mean the end of my home. Go ahead She doesn't even open it just puts it in the closet on the back porch Doesn't even pull the paper apart to peek at what's in it real mad Joe You may not let me back in the house tonight. I didn't apologize when you get home I don't know Joe face pretty sore didn't even open the press not even a peek huh? Listen Yeah, tell where it's coming from. Yeah, it sounds like up on seven. Come on. You're right here pull up I'll take the front. All right, police officer stop or I'll shoot Frank come on your way. Okay Take it easy. Yeah Good kid Joe. I see. What are you doing in the store son? What do you think I'm doing? You ask your question son Pretty stupid. What do you think I was doing? How many stories you're broken into son figure it out for yourself Look, what do you got a chip on your shoulder? Don't give me a lot of conversation do what you want to do. All right boy. You call it come on 1150 p.m. We called the office and told them that we had a subject in custody and that we were taking him to Georgia Street juvenile building put the boy in our car and we waited until the radio car We asked the officers to notify the owner of the store and stand by until he got there We also asked that they make a 459 report 1155 p.m. You started to take the youngster to the juvenile bureau What's your name son? What difference does it make acting like that isn't gonna help you you guys pick me up remember? You worry about it. I got nothing to be afraid. Oh, yes, you have boy. You could have been shot back there Maybe should have pulled a trigger Look son, what's the matter with you? Why are you acting like this? You just got real lucky back there That's the only reason you're alive now. It was dark in there as far as I could tell you were an adult You didn't stop when I told you do not according to book. I could have shot you You know that don't you turn the kid that'll make you a big man. Oh, I'm just bringing it up to prove a point save now Look son, I'm gonna tell you something when you break into a place at night You're not a kid anymore. You're asking for trouble You've got both your pockets full of it the way you work tonight makes us think you're mixed up in a lot more thefts And just tonight that right you ever been arrested before no never been in trouble with the law Sure, I'm a real criminal I got a ticket once for ride my bike through a boulevard stop radio car stop me and tag me big deal But they're gonna send me to San Quentin Maybe you can give me the gas change How old are you? What difference is that me? How old are you? You figure all right? You look like you're about 11 to me That's what everybody thinks me 15 my next birthday. Don't get a son. It's a truth 15 That's what I'll be 15 when we have one 1939 November 2nd. They're small for your age, aren't you? Why do you say that aren't you? It's got nothing to do with it nothing at all I can do anything any other kids can do anything. Don't forget that. What's the matter with you? Is that a sore point with you your size is that a sore point nothing wrong with my size Doctor says that I'm all right Just that some people aren't meant to be as big as others. That's all there's nothing wrong with me No, no come on son. What you mean? Now look, you know, we're gonna find out How are you gonna find out? We will now. Why don't you save us all a lot of time and tell us the truth here? Be better if you did If I do tell you you're gonna put it in the papers. What I Tell you They're gonna be a lot of reporters around my name gonna get in the papers not from us Can't tell you that you mean if there's no reporters around you aren't gonna tell us your name. Is that it? That's the way it is It's kind of funny, isn't it? Maybe that's the way it looks to you What do you live can't tell you that either you've got things all wrong son It isn't what you want to tell it. That's got nothing to do with this You're gonna tell us what we want to know sooner or later. Where are we going? Georgia Street? That's where the jail is why do you ask them because I want to know there's a jail there Reporters, but they're gonna be reporters. What is this thing with reporters in you? What's this all about? Reporters put your name in the papers. Don't say I'm tired. Well, you get the reporters all lined up You get them from all the papers who haven't they're not tell you all about it the whole story You just get the reporters and the photographers be sure about them because I want some pictures, too Well, look, let me get this straight what you say you aren't gonna give us any information without the press being there That's right. That's the way it's gonna be. Well, you got it wrong boy. What doesn't make any difference who's there? You're gonna come around. Yeah, we'll find out You are listening to dragnet the authentic story of your police force in action 12 10 a.m. We got to Georgia Street juvenile bureau Frank pulled the car into the side alley and we took the subject out of the backseat Up this way son Yeah, well, it's been here a long time looks like a set out of a picture. Don't you worry about it, huh? You want to take him down the hall Frank? I'll check with hard roll. Yeah, come on buddy. Hey Friday working kind of late Aren't you yeah, we are I got dinner from Simmons on the milk burglary's checked around the night wise nothing on it So I didn't call you I don't think you have to worry about I think we got the answer Yeah, I just picked up a kid. We got him dead to rights in the market open bottle of milk right next to cash register Where is he now? Thanks got him down the hall. You think he's your boy It looks like it everything adds up the entrance what he tried to take the milk all along seems to fit You got that kind of a case. What are you worrying about? There's two things. Yeah, we isn't why he did it He won't tell it. No, it's got some big thing working about the press says he won't give us anything without reporters being there Makes it rough Joe. You know the policy. Yeah, I do. He won't let us help him If he wants publicity take me down introduce me as a reporter Now what am I doing? Don't do any harm to try. Let's go. We'll make it a big Well, tell him you said Hughes from the mirror, huh? Yeah, might as well be one of the good ones Son you wanted to talk to somebody from the papers. It's against the policy, but we swung it for you This is said Hughes from the mirror. Hi, you know the hell that guy in the phone in Baltimore. Yeah, great I read all about it. You know, right me up like that. I hope not son. There were two men killed in that operation I read all the stories. Everybody did that's what I mean for you to write me up with a picture That makes you think you got it coming You break into one store and try to steal a couple of cartons of cigarettes that doesn't make the first page one store I got in the 19 of them 19 before they caught me. That's important isn't that's a story I don't know my big couple things. We better get straightened out here first off What's your name better get your notebook out be able to take all this down? Don't worry about it, son You just answer the questions. I'll get it. Yeah Okay, my name is L. Roy Graham. That's e-l-r-o-y G-r-a-h-a-m. Yeah, how old are you? I told you once almost 15. You said you'd broken into 19 stores Is that right? Yeah 19 Might have made her more but something went wrong tonight. I had trouble with the burglar alarm But I turned it off bad mistake. He's still working. It wasn't for that Guess it only takes one though, huh, Mr. Hughes? Yeah, I guess so You want to tell us why you did it? What? Yeah, I'd have a reason for committing these robberies You want to tell us what it was sure good reason real good. All right, tell us Well, you see I always had trouble at school never seemed to quite make it all the guys like me All did all the girls do too got girls calling me almost every night asked me to take him to dance and stuff like that I don't go much for stuff like that. You can understand. Can't you Mr. Hughes? Go ahead. All right Well, they wanted me for all our teams football basketball all the time asked me to play But I figure if you want to get ahead in the world You got to have an aim some place where you want to get figure out that work for it And you're gonna get there. Don't you find that true, Mr. Hughes? Go ahead That's the way it was with me all the time turned down offers to be on some team telling some girl I couldn't take her to a dance just didn't have the time somehow. I just couldn't make it you can understand it You've been around you know all the successful kind of people you write something a lot of people read it. You know what I mean Don't you well, what's the matter something wrong? I'm trying to tell you what happened. I'm giving it to you straight. What's the matter? Now you want to tell us the truth Elroy what I don't know why you're trying to sell us this line boy It isn't necessary. I don't know why you did what you did, but I do know you had a reason for it That's all we want to know just the reason You don't believe me Prayed not how about you? No, son. I don't Mr. Hughes no Can't even lie right? Can't even tell a lie good all my life I've been trying to be like other kids all the time getting beat up getting left out of things. You know why? Do you know go ahead son? big reason biggest reason in the world Cuz I'm almost 15 years old I'm four feet seven inches tall four feet seven weight 97 pounds that ain't very big not big enough All the time other kids shoving you around all the time you're the joke Gets to the time when you figure it's easy to laugh, too Because if you don't some kids gonna beat you up gets to the point where you don't care anymore I Used to clip out those coupons and send them in Get the books back on how to build myself up worked at it didn't do nothing for me Was still four feet seven and weight 97 pounds all the stuff I took didn't do no good Still came out four feet seven 97 pounds All right, so you want to tell us about the burglaries I? Did it to be big that's why I had the things other people wanted cigarettes candy the other things kids wanted I Had all that stuff that the other kids wanted Made me important. Don't you see that? You gotta understand it mr. Hughes. That's why I wanted my picture in the paper. That's why I wanted this story So the kids would know that I'd done something big So they know All right, Simon. It's gonna be all right here No, what is like everything else I tried to do I lost it up I didn't mean to steal but it was the only thing to do the only way I had I wasn't there's some other no No, there wasn't all the time the other kids laughing all the time talking Just couldn't stand it anymore. I just couldn't There you go. Thanks. You can understand it. Can't you it makes sense? What's that son? Wasn't so much the kids saying I was little. Yeah, I didn't want to think I was small 1236 a.m. We contacted the parents of the grand boy and asked them to come down to the station We talked to them for an hour and tried to fill them in The view of the fact that the parents of the subject were responsible persons The boy was booked for violation of section 459 PC delinquent and he was released to his parents pending his hearing in juvenile court Five days passed and we heard nothing from the boy on December 24th. Frank, and I checked into the office Friday yeah, get in the back. Let's see you and Smith. Okay. Thank you. Hi, mr. Friday. Oh Roy. What can we do for you? Well, I guess you think it's kind of funny. What's that? I want to tell you that I should think it's good what you did for me Help me with that burglary thing the other night. Well, it isn't over yet son the court still has to make a decision on it Yeah What you did to make me feel better? As far as I'm concerned, whatever the judge decides I'll go along with it. I had a long talk with my folks So we got it all talked out all the way talked out. Well, that's good son. We're glad of it, son Maybe you guys won't like it. I mean me knowing you such a short time and off But I wanted to bring you these Merry Christmas Well, that's awful nice of you. All right, but it's necessary. I want to give him to you anyway For what you did for me. Oh, that's mighty nice of you. All right sure appreciate it a couple of packages cigarette Hope they're the kind of smoke Yeah, son. They'll be fine. Thanks, son. Well You guys around huh? Yeah, sure son. Just one more thing sergeant. Yeah, son Just thought you'd like to know. Yeah, what's that? I Didn't steal Elroy Merton Graham appeared before the juvenile court where he admitted the alleged burglaries at this time under the council of the Judge of the juvenile court the subject was placed under the care of the probation department for a period of three years With the provision that his parents take him to a competent psychiatrist You have just heard dragnet the authentic story of your police force in action and starring Jack Webb a Presentation of the United States armed forces radio service