A (7:35)
I was mistaken about that. I don't know what to do with him. That's what I want to ring in for. Let them tell me. Patrolman Coley rang into the station house and explained the situation to Lieutenant Gorman, the desk officer on duty. He was instructed to bring the man to the Station house. And for this purpose, an RMP car was sent by radio to the address. In the meantime, the fire in the 23rd Precinct had been extinguished and I returned to the 21st. It was 2:25am when I got out of the car, crossed the sidewalk and walked up the three stone steps into the muster room of the precinct house. It is required by the manual of procedure that the commanding officer sign the blotter immediately upon leaving or entering the station house. And I went around the desk to comply. Hello, Captain. Sergeant. Morning. First Precinct, Sergeant Waters. Hello, Red. Captain. All right, hold on. Lieutenant. Yes? Cahill is ringing in. Reports one male at Roseville Hospital in that auto record. Tesla went over in the Apple. All right. Tell him to resume patrol until Kessler rings in that he's ready to be picked up. Yes, sir. Okay, Red, it's all yours. Big fire up there, Captain. Yeah, it burned out this one building almost completely. Ran about 30 families out on the street. Lucky it's a warm night. Yeah, and we had to reroute bridge traffic. Nobody hurt, was there? No, the alarm was turned in fast. Come on, Pop, right up to the desk. Where? Where do you want me? Right here is all right. Here he is with Senator. Hello, Captain Coley. You still won't tell you his name, Coley? No, sir. Will you tell me, Pop? If I wouldn't tell him, why should I tell you? What's this all about, Connie? Well, he was sleeping in the hallway, Captain. The lady who called in thought he was drunk. I wasn't drunk. I never had a drink in my life. Well, what were you doing there, Pop? Sleeping. Now, look, Pop, we don't want to put you in jail. Let's get it straightened out. What's your name? Well, I'm not so sure jail would be so bad. At least there's a bed in jail. The floor in that hall is kind of hard. What about your family? What about them? Where are they? Can we get in touch with them? I'd rather go to jail. It wouldn't be any problem. Sleeping in a hallway, that's disorderly conduct. Maybe you call it disorderly conduct. I was just sleeping because I was tired. How old are you? 78. I was 78 in March. Don't you have any money? Well, I've got three, four dollars. Look, don't you want to tell us your name? No. No, I thought I made that clear. Well, how can we help you out? I don't know that you're trying to help me if you are trying. I don't know that I want your help. We are trying to help you. Maybe so, but I'm still not going to tell you my name. All right, Coley, let's see what's in his pockets. Put your hands up on the rail, Pop. Boss, I don't want to let you search me. Look, it's the law, Pop. We're required to search all prisoners. Well, if it's the law, I don't want to go against that. Oh, Lieutenant, I think I saw an alarm yesterday. Missing person's report on a 78 year old man. Did you? I think so. Go see if you can locate it. Yes, sir. Right away, Captain. $3.88. Gee, I was pretty close about the money. I said between three and four dollars. Pipe something back. You're not gonna take that pipe away from me. I've had that 16 years. You'll get it back. One key. A door key. You can throw that away. I don't know why I'm carrying it around. Well, that's all. No identification. Calling a lot of things. Look inside your suit coat pocket, see if there's a label. Yes, sir. You won't find the thing now. There's no use looking. No, no label, Captain. Nothing here. I think I found the alarm, Captain. Come on, Pop. We don't want to waste any more time. Description fits. We should be out catching robbers. I better get that. Excuse me, Captain. Yeah? Put me in jail if you want to, Pop. Is your name John W. Lowfield? Isn't. We have a missing persons alarm for a John W. Lowfield, age 78 years old, put out yesterday morning by his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Heppel, 42 West 79th Street. She. She says he's missing from home and describes him as 5ft 8 inches tall, 145 pounds, medium build, gray, almost white hair, glasses, wearing a brown suit, gray sweater. Well, this suit's brown, isn't it? The sweater's gray. Are you John W. Lowfield? The description says he has a 2 inch cut scar in the palm of his right hand. Let's see your right hand, Pop. He's got a cap. I'm not going back there. Now, there's no use you calling her. I'm not going back there. I'm just not. Why not? They don't want me. She's your daughter, isn't she? That doesn't make her want me. She got worried that you were missing. What did you do, run away? No, I. I didn't run. I'm too old to run. I just walked. You are listening to 21st Precinct a factual account of the way police work in the world's largest city. If you were to sit down and list some of the rights and freedoms that you have, you'd probably list the big things like, oh, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and others. Well, those are mighty important. But what about the little things? Things you don't think about much because you pretty well accept them as a matter of course. Like choosing the business or profession you want to go into. You know, in some countries, you work at the job assigned to you with no free choice at all. Or like getting as much education as you can in schools that are open to all. In some countries, education is only for the privileged few. Or take a little thing like buying a house or renting an apartment for your family. There are places in this world where you live right where you're told. Have you ever thought about why you're allowed these free choices? Why you accept it as your right? It's because such free choices are guaranteed to you and your children and to generations in the future, to be exact. It's in Article 9 of our bill of Rights. The men who wrote our Constitution and our Bill of Rights put this in just in case they forgot to mention something important in the other. It says, the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. You get that? It's not left to Congress or the President or any special group. These rights belong to all of us, to the people. It's one of our freedoms. Now back to 21st Precinct and Captain Pinelli. Because John W. Lowfield, the 78 year old man found sleeping in the hallway at 2 o' clock in the morning, was the subject of a missing persons alarm. He was not booked in on the charge of disorderly conduct. Instead, he was taken upstairs to the 21st Detective Squad to await disposition of the case. In the meantime, Lieutenant Gorman, the desk officer, informed the Manhattan Communications Bureau, which in turn put out a cancellation of the alarm on the teletype. According to established procedure, the desk officer in the 20th Precinct on the west side of Manhattan sent a patrolman to the residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Heppel, the daughter of John W. Lowfield, who reported him missing, to notify her that he'd been located. At 3:15am while I was out on patrol of the precinct, Detective Edward D. McInerney returned from his meal carrying a paper bag. He walked in the front door of the station house, through the back room and up the stairs to the 21st Detective Squad. Here you are, Pop. Bought your container. Coffee and the Danish. Oh, thanks. Thanks a lot. I didn't know how much sugar you wanted, so I brought three lumps. No, I don't use any sugar now. How much do I owe you? Oh, you don't owe me a thing. No, no, you're. You're not supposed to buy food for me. Now, get it. No, no. How. How much is it? Forget it, Pop. I've got money. Save it for your old age. Well, thanks. Thanks a lot. Excuse me. Yeah? Are you sure they notified my daughter? Well, that's what the desk officer says. Says you'll be here in a little while. I didn't want them to do that, Pop. That's life. We can't have things the way we want them all the time. Yeah, that's life. Is that about me? Why? Is what you're writing there about me? Oh, no, Pop. It's about something else. It's a 61. Oh, that's so. Yeah, it's a crime report. It's about a lady who left a package in the car. The door is unlocked. She came back. She was very surprised to find the package gone. Oh, do you have to do that with every little thing? With every little thing? Yeah. This day and age. Sherlock Holmes make a lousy detective. He couldn't type. Hello, Ed. Lieutenant Fitzpatrick ring in? No, sir. You were up early this morning, Lieutenant. Yeah. I hope it wasn't anything I did. No, it wasn't anything you did, Pop. Lieutenant King, Mr. John W. Lo. How'd you do? He was the subject of missing persons report. Daughter is on her way over here to get him. I didn't ask her to come. I don't want her to come. I wish they'd just take me back where they found me. That's all right, Pop. You'll be better off at home. If I had a home. Look, Ed. Yes? Who's on the job? Goldman, Vitali. Where are they? Hard making an investigation. Have them ring in here. Yes, sir. I don't want her to come for me. 21st Precinct. Sergeant Waters as sergeant. Would you have CB put out a call for 419 to ring in, please? Okay. Thanks. What have you got hanging at? Nothing much, Lieutenant. Just Pop here. All right, Ed, you come with us. I'll take care of him downstairs. No one has to take care of me. I can take care of myself. Hello, Matt. Captain. Well, at six o' clock you said you're going home to get a good night's sleep. Yeah, that's What I planned, Captain. What's doing, Ed? Yes, sir. Go in my office and ring up Cassidy and DeLuca at their homes. Yes, sir. Tell them to meet us at the 44th squad at 4:00'. Clock. Yes, sir. By the way, I just came up to see that you were getting taken care of, Mr. Lowfield. Oh, I'm getting taken care of. I'm getting taken care of fine, except you won't let me go. Well, your daughter will be here right away. That's the reason I want to go. What's doing, man? Well, the two boys that stuck up the laundry on York Avenue last week, remember them? Yeah. Fitzpatrick got a line on them. Traced them out to a flat up on the 44th. He's got the place planted. Rang into me at home. We're going up there to see if we can collar them. You sure they're the right ones? Well, according to Fitz, they are. He said he had some good information on them. Said he woke up the super of the building they're staying in. They answered the description of the boys we want. Well, it'll be a good color. They're probably ripe for a lot more beside that laundry. Yes, sir, I know they are. Here. Where can I put this? Right in the waste basket there, puppy. 21st Squad. Lieutenant King. Where are you, Goldman? All right, come on in here right away. We've got a job. I wanted to pay that detective for the coffee and the sweet roll, but he wouldn't take the money. I don't want anyone to pay for me out of their own pocket. He comes from a rich family, Pop. Still, I wish he'd take the money. You're not gonna leave home anymore, are you, Mr. Lowfield? All you do is wind up in the police station. Now, I haven't made up my mind that I'm going home. I don't think I am. Why did you leave in the first place? You're half my age, aren't you? Well, little more than half. Everyone gets old, Pop. Old, yes, but old and in the way. Not everyone. After Lieutenant King and his detectives left for the 44th Precinct, John W. Lowfield was brought downstairs where he was told to wait in the back room for the arrival of his daughter at the station house. I went into my office where I occupied myself reading and signing reports and communications which would be forwarded to Division at the completion of the tour. At 3:40am the muster room was quiet except for an occasional call heard over the monitor of KEA 394, the police radio. The desk officer assigned to the 12 to 8 tour has the added job of classifying and filing various reports turned in during the preceding 24 hours. And Lieutenant Gorman was busy at this task. Sergeant Waters was at the telephone switchboard. Sergeant. Yes, sir. What time is Callie Due to ring? 48, Lieutenant. When he rings, I want to talk to him. Yes, sir. 21st. Bracing, Sergeant Waters. Well, there's nobody up in the detective, sir. They're all out on the job. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, well, hold on a second. I'll give you the 124 man. Maybe he can help you. Sergeant Waters. Fallon. A lieutenant from the Manhattan west homicide squad is ringing in for some information about an armed robbery we had in the 21st last week. Well, the detectives are all out. See if you can help them. Okay, hold on. Go ahead, Sergeant. Yes, sir. Give me a line on there with the words, yes, sir. You want some coffee, Lieutenant? Oh, no, not right now.
