Transcript
A (0:04)
21st Precinct. It's just lines on the map of the City of New York. Most of the 173,000 people wedged into the 9/10 of a square mile between Fifth Avenue and the east river wouldn't know if you asked them that they lived or worked in the 21st. Whether they know it or not. The security of their homes, their persons and their property is the job of the men of the 21st Precinct. The 21st. 160 patrolmen, 11 sergeants and four lieutenants, of whom I'm the boss. My name is Cronin, Vincent P. Cronin. I'm Captain in Command of the 21st Precinct. I was doing day duty 8am to 6pm Tours of duty vary like the weather. Some are quiet, others are stormy. This tour was a stormy one when I came on the job. At 7:30am a three alarm fire in an old brewery near the east river had just been brought under control. Two city firemen had been overcome and taken to Metropolitan Hospital. At 8:16am a bus and a taxicab collided on Second Avenue. The driver of the cab and his two passengers were injured. Shortly after 9:00 clock there was a call that a paint store on Lexington Avenue had been burglarized during the night. I was still at the scene of the accident when Patrolman Farrell, my operator, rang into TS from a call box and informed me of the burglary. We made the run to Lexington Avenue. The men from Sector 4 and Sergeant Tierney were already on the job. Farrell parked between their cars in front of the paint store. All right, let's go. Hello, Captain. What do we got, Ross? A safe job, John. They hauled it away. They just rolled it out the front door. Carried it away. All right. Don't touch the door, Captain. That' where they got in and out. Okay. Sergeant Jennings says the detectives might want to try it for fingerprints. All right, stay on the job here. Keep the sidewalk clear. Yes, sir. What time do you usually open a store, Mr. Estolis? Same time, 9 o'. Clock. 9 o' clock every day. Hello, Sergeant. Captain. Mr. Estolas, this is Captain Cronin. How do you go? Some mess to come to work, too. Some mess, huh? Mr. Restolis is the proprietor, Captain. Mr. Peter Estolis. He opened up this morning and found the place had been burglarized during the night. The whole safe picked up. The whole safe? You'd think the safe would be safe. The whole thing. You notify the detective Sergeant? Yes. I rang in as soon as I saw what it was Sally was catching he notified the safe and lost squad and he's on his way over here himself. Oh, where Was this safe, Mr. Sullis? Right back there, Ken. Right back there in plain view with a light on it. I always make it a practice to leave a light on. Right. Right here in between brushes and wallpapers. What kind of a safe was it, Mr. Stuller?
B (2:43)
A black one.
A (2:45)
I mean, do you know the name of the manufacturer and the style number? Oh, well, to tell you the truth, no. When did you buy it? Well, let's see. I had it when I removed to this location. I had it about a year. Then I'd been here nine years, so I got the safe about 10. It's important the detectives have a description of the safe. Don't you have the manufacturer's name, the model number written down, something? Well, yes. Tell you the truth, I think I do. I think I got the original invoice from when I bought it. Good. That's all we need. Where is the invoice? In the safe. That figures. How was the entry made, Sergeant? Street door was jimmied. Neat job, Captain. They got a bar in between the door and the frame and just snapped off the latch. Yeah, and when I walked up to the door, I could see something was screwy. I touched it and it opened. The lock was broken off. Listen, I got my insurance policies in a safe tool. How does that make me stand on the insurance? Well, you don't need your policies. Just get in touch with your brokers. Do you have any cash in the sink? Oh, yeah, sure. That's why I keep the safe principle. How much? Oh, 6, $700. Your receipts from yesterday. Well, most of it. 4 or 450 of the receipts yesterday. The rest is extra cash I just keep rotten. What? Well, to tell you the truth, Captain, it's a couple of hundred dollars I had. I didn't want my wife to know about, you know, mad money. She knows everything I'm doing and how much I got in the bank to the last nickel. You see, I'm the president and she's the secretary treasurer of this little corporation. We got Restaurant Saints and Corporation. And she takes the job serious. I figure I'm entitled to a couple of hundred dollars. You don't know what is it, six or seven hundred dollars Between. I don't know. I'd have to figure the register and so forth. What else did you have in there, Mr. Sons? Oh, a couple of dollars in stamps. Oh. Oh, for crying out loud. My war bond. My war bond was in there. You won't lose anything there. You have a record of the serial numbers, don't you? Yeah, also in the state. You sure had a lot of faith in that faith, Mr. Estola. Well, who'd have thought, you know. Listen, the government will make good on those war bonds. We'll say that's my hard earned money in those bonds. What happened? You better get in touch with the treasury department as soon as you can, Mr. Stoles. Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Anything else in there, Mr. Estonis? Oh, my. Accounts receivable. Listen, how much chance is there of getting them back? I mean, the bonds and the accounts receivable. I don't care about the cash. You know, this could develop into an expensive proposition. The treasury might give me a hard time. And without the accounts receivable, well, to tell you the truth, I'm a dead duck. Account's payable. Who cares? The people I owe, if I don't pay them, will let me know. But the people that owe me aren't going to come around here and volunteer money. No, sir. You think I can get it back? The contents, besides the cash, I mean. You probably will, Ms. Restoreless. All I want is the cash ledgers and war bonds. Won't do them any good. That's good news. If only it comes through. What'd they do? Sergeant, roll it along here. Yes, sir. You can see the track right down here and out the door. Must have had a pickup truck or a car waiting. A car? Oh, they couldn't get that safe into a car. You know how big it is? Well, it comes up to here. Up to here? There must have been nine guys to move it. Look, I haven't had it out of that corner for two years. It was so heavy. Look. Look at the dust back there. You all alone in the store, Mrs. Stos? Yeah, that's right. All alone. Except on Saturdays. My wife comes down to give me a hand and work on a book. She's got a job down on wall street. On Saturday, she comes to help me out. You always been alone in the stone? Well, yeah, for the last three or four years. I used to have help, but it got more than the traffic could bear. I couldn't keep them. And I always had their problems, plus my own. I figured it didn't pay 12 guys there must have been to roll that safe out of here. Believe me, it was this big. Was this big and heavy. Now, who could that be on the phone? It's a fine time. You better ask her, Mr. Staller. It's a fine time for Business as usual. Some deal, huh, Captain? Yeah, some deal. And a roll of safe out cross the sidewalk, up onto a truck. Where was the patrolman on post based? May, Captain Patrol Saint. What time you think they broke in, Sergeant? Who? He closes the store at 6 o'. Clock. He didn't open up until 9 this morning. Could have been any time in between. Yah. Yah. Sergeant, give me the names of the two men who were on post here for the night tour and for the lake tour. Yes, sir. I want to know why they didn't see this burglary in progress or at least discover that the door was Ginny. Hey, listen, Captain, that telephone's for you. For me? Yeah, I answered it and somebody says, who's the cop in charge there? It was a dame. Dame? I said, there's a captain here. She said, let me talk to the captain. All right, where's this? It's back there on the counter, right next to the cash. Right. Now, you don't need all those money, Sergeant. Get some of them back out at your own. Yes, sir. Captain Cronin, are you in charge of the cops there? Who is it?