21st Precinct, Sergeant Waters. Yeah. Yeah. How many women? What, is it a bargain sale there? What do they want? Yeah. Yeah. You are in the muster room at the 21st Precinct, the nerve center. A call is coming through. You will follow the action taken pursuant to that call from this minute until the final report is written in the 124 room at the 21st Precinct. All right. I'll send a car around there. Right away? Yeah. Okay. 21st Precinct transcribed. It's just lines on the map of the city of New York. Most of the 173,000 people wedged into the nine-tenths 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. But though they know it or not, 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 Kennelly, Frank Kennelly. I'm captain in command of the 21st. I was working my day tour, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The weather had turned exceedingly cold over the weekend, and for the first time the men turned out in their winter overcoats. After the platoon marched out the front door, I went into my office to read over reports of occurrences in the command during the last 24 hours while I was off duty. Shortly after 9 o'clock, I walked out into the muster room, through the back room, and across the iron bridge into the station house annex, which houses the cells where prisoners arrested in the precinct are held until taken to court. According to procedure, and in the company of patrolman Bailey, the station house attendant, I made an inspection of the cells to see that they were clean and supplied with paper drinking cups, towels, and so forth. After I concluded this inspection, I returned to the back room and headed toward the muster room, where a heated discussion was going on between the desk officer, Lieutenant Gorman, on one hand, and several women on the other. Now, please. Now, please. All right. All right. All right, ladies. What's the trouble, Sergeant? I haven't been able to make it out yet, Captain. All right. Now, look. One at a time. Huh? All right. All right. Now, wait a minute. Just wait a minute. One at a time. Means one at a time. Well, you got it, then. Well, you found out, Captain. Now, one of you's got to do the talking. Who will it be? Mine's the most valuable. I'll talk. I'll talk plenty. Let it be me. All right. Now, wait a minute. All right. You, lady. What's your name? Me? Yes. Mrs. Pippen. Mrs. Sarah Perfitt. All right. Now, let's let Mrs. Perfitt tell what happened. And the rest of us will just listen. We'll all get out there. All right? Yes. All right. Mrs. Perfitt. Well, he's sold out their coat. Who did? The Faurier. What's his name? Oddly. What's his person? George C. How did he come to steal your coat? Well, it's not his. Wait a minute. Is he in business over on East 86th Street? Yes. Furnhill Faurier? That's right. 738 East 86th Street. I had my coat in storage there since May, and I can't get it back. He doesn't even look in any of us. Ten weeks. That's right. Well, why won't he give them back to you? Well, he keeps saying he will. He never does. I've been trying for two weeks. Two weeks. I've been trying for months. All right. Okay. Does he give any reason? Well, I had to have a new lining put in mine. He keeps telling me the material hasn't come in yet. Then he tells her the right fur isn't there yet. That's right. The sleeves are a little bit worn. He's going to get skinned to match. I see. But mine was just being stored, and I can't get it back. And there weren't any repairs to mine, and he keeps stalling me. Well, what did he tell you? Well, he keeps telling me that... Just a minute. Just a minute. I'm supposed to do the talking. No, that's all right. I'd like to hear what he keeps telling her. Oh, excuse me. Well, he keeps telling me that he has much storage space business, that he didn't have enough room in his own vault to store the coats. Well, so he had to send most of them over to a wholesale storage company. And mine's not back yet. Well, maybe he's right. Maybe he's just having a hard time getting the work done. I know. It's nothing like that. Are the three of you friends? No. Oh, no. We don't know each other, do we? No. You see, we were at the store this morning, and he didn't open up. It was 9.30, and he didn't show up. There were the three of us and ten other women waiting for him. We all had coats in there being fixed or stored or something like that, and we got to talking. We found out that he'd been stalling all of us, stalling us for weeks about our coats. Anyway, I said I was willing to do something about it. I was the one who said it. It doesn't make any difference who said it. We decided to come over here and see if anything could be done about it. That's right. And what makes you think he stole your coats? If he didn't steal them, where are they? Well, the store is still there, isn't it? The store is still there, but he isn't. He didn't open up today. That's right. Yeah, all right. All right. All right. You're Mrs. Perfitt. That's right. And you? Mrs. Tressiter. Mrs. Amy Tressiter. Ms. Neal. Doris Neal. N-I-A-L-L. What kind of coat is yours, Ms. Neal? Well, it's not a coat exactly. It's a jacket. Silver Fox jacket. Mrs. Perfitt? Mine's a coat. It might be only muskrat, but it's a full coat and I paid $400 for it. Did you buy it there? I should say not. I bought it on Fifth Avenue. Oh, too. Yeah, what kind? Honey, you don't seem very excited. Mine was a mink coat. You know, there was an act where you don't accomplish anything by getting excited. That's right. I'm screaming about a lousy silver fox jacket. Besides, my husband said that if I didn't get the coat back today, I should report it to the police and then call the insurance company. Oh, the insurance company. I knew there must be a reason you wasn't excited. Well, I don't have any insurance and I want my coat back. Well, who said I didn't want mine back? Who cares about your insurance? I like my coat. All right. All right. I want a badge. Okay. Look, I want you to tell me how come there was such a crowd there this morning. Well, he kept stalling and stalling us and finally he told everybody Monday, come back Monday morning and we could have our coats. Isn't that what he told you? That's right. And he didn't open up this morning. No! Well, over there now, I bet you there are at least 20 women hanging around this door outside. At least 20. There were at least 10 there already when we decided to come over here. Is that right? Yes, that's right. 10 including ourselves. Besides ourselves. Miss President, did you store your coat there last year? Well, no, I didn't. I don't think he's been open that long since he stored coats last year. Yes, he has. I stored mine there last year. And you didn't have any trouble getting it out on the floor? No, no trouble at all. I brought him the receipt and he gave it to me. He was just as nice as you please. He was nice. He was a very nice man. He didn't get any compliments out of me. I'll say that. But what we'd like to know is what can be done about it. Well, in the first place, there's no evidence yet that he stole any of your fur. Well, I'd like to know what you call it. Well, he told you to come back on Monday. Well, today's Monday and we were back. Where were we? Your place is tied to stores like up tight. Lieutenant, would you get the card out of the business house file? That's Furno Puria, 7386. Yes, that's right. And his name is Audley, George. Yes, Audley. What's that going to do? Well, I want to see if he's opened up yet. You can count on it. He hasn't. When did you take your code in to the stores, Miss President? In May. Oh, wait a minute. I've got the storage receipt right here in my bag. Right here. May the 3rd. What value did you place on it? Well, we paid $4,000 for it. $4,000? Of course, that was nearly two years ago and it will be two years Christmas. It was a Christmas gift for my husband. Christmas somebody should give me a husband like that. Here it is, Captain. Yeah. All right, bring it over to the store. He's not going to be there. Take my word for it. He can cry, Tandy. He can cry. Sergeant, turn around on here. I don't think he'll be there. I know he won't be there. He was coming. He just showed up by now. He's not coming. It's ringing. It's ringing all day. This is all well and good, but it's not going to get my coat back. No way. I want some actionable debt action. That's what I said. We've got to have a little patience. When the wind is blowing and I've got chills, I don't worry about patience. Oh, that's okay. Home number listed there? Yes, sir. Try that. Where's the line up, Sergeant? Yes, sir. Did you say you have his home phone number there? Yes, that's right. Well, what is it? Oh, I'm sorry. I can't give you that information. You can't give us that information. We've got to do it now. We are, aren't we? It's got a coat. Bring him in. Well, just give us a chance and we'll try to get it straightened out. That's what I say. Look, you've got to worry about it. Hello? Is this the resident of Mr. George C. Audley? Yeah. Yeah. I see. Is he there? Oh, is that so? Yeah. Well, when was that? Well, what is it? Oh, he didn't. All right. Thank you. Wasn't he there either? The woman said she was his landlady. Yeah? Wasn't he there? Mr. and Mrs. Audley rented a furnished room there. They moved out yesterday. Moved out? Oh, you see? Well, where did they go? I don't want to know. Now, just a second. Oh, it's awful. All right. Looks like you're right. Looks like Mr. Audley did skip. So what are we supposed to do? You know how I scraped to get that jacket? If you listen, I'll tell you what to do. Yes, sir. You go back through that door there and up the stairs to the second floor. You'll see the detective's office up there. You go right in and they'll take care of it. Will they be able to find him? They'll try. That's not the important thing. Will they be able to get our coat back? You make a complaint up there and they'll answer. Is there any particular detective we should see or is just one as good as the other? They'll tell you who to see. We are not getting the runaround now, are we? Because my husband works for the city and he knows a few people, you know. The detectives will handle it. You just go on upstairs. Might as well. Detectives are higher than men anyway. On the second floor? Yes, that's right. Well, we've got to learn how to get our coat. Who's talking up there, Sergeant? General, Sergeant. Well, I hope he likes to hear women talk. He ought to be used to it. He's got four daughters. Oh, is that so? Hold on. Lieutenant. Yes. Cole, are you ringing in? He's on post up there on 86th Street. There's about 15 women congregating around that photoshop. They're boiling, every one of them. Yeah. He says he's afraid they'll break in the door or he can't handle them alone. All right, send a car around to help him get it straightened out. Yes, sir. I'll send a car to give you a hand. You ought to put someone on a fixture up there, Ren. We're almost short today, Captain. Yeah, I know. I could double up post three and five and send Kale up there. All right, try that. I would leave a school crossing open this afternoon, though. Things will probably quiet down by then. Yes, sir, probably. Twenty-twice briefing, Sergeant Waters. Yes, a hold on a second. Hey, the detective's ringing down, Captain. Lieutenant King wants to talk to you. All right, I'll take it here. Yes. Twenty-first briefing, Captain Cannelly. This place has turned into a head house, Captain. Yeah, I can imagine. They're all cackling, too. Well, just get their coats back, Matt. That's all it'll take. We've been using a tribe. Look around that home address on Ortley. We'll send a man up there to check them out. Oh, yeah, sure. Give me that convent, listen. Matt. Yes, Captain. The home address is 63 West 79th Street. Yes, sir. And the phone over there is Academy 2-3598. 3598? Yeah, but he's supposed to be going from there. Yes, sir, the lady's told me. Thanks, Captain. Okay, Matt. You think the detectives will give any results, Captain? Well, Ren, I know they're going to try. You are listening to 21st Precinct, a factual account of the way police work in the world's largest city. Now, back to 21st Precinct and Captain Cannelly. A serious crime or an unusual occurrence seldom results in a shortage of personnel in a precinct command, because in such instances the inspector commanding the division, the borough commander, or the chief inspector will order men into the troubled area for temporary duty from other commands. The real pressure for manpower comes when a multiplicity of small everyday occurrences within the precinct requires the force to be thinly spread. Such was the case on this day when three patrolmen were in court as witness duty, one went sick, one had a prisoner in custody while he was questioned by detectives, and one was assigned to a fixed post to prevent angry women from breaking into a door and show windows of a furrier shop. Out on patrol about an hour later, I rode by the closed shop. The patrolmen assigned there on a fixer had the situation under constill gathered on the sidewalk. They had been told to take their complaints to the detectives. I instructed the operator of my car to pull into a parking space down the block, and I walked back toward the furriers. As I approached a luggage shop several doors from the place, I saw the proprietor standing in the doorway. Oh, Captain, Captain Cannelly. Oh, hello, Mr. Toppen. Well, how do you like this? It's not good. Some reputation the merchants on the block can get from one rotten apple. I know it doesn't help. You know how business is doing with these this morning? Terrible. Are you attributed to this? You know, something like this can run all the customers to the province. Well, it's too bad. I mean, he's not such a bad guy, George. He's a pretty nice guy, as a matter of fact. He's a good friend of mine. We had lunch together all the time. Well, we'd tell each other our troubles. But I didn't think he was in such bad shape as this. I had no idea. What does he do with the ladies' coats anyway, Captain? Do you know? Not yet. Not exactly. Well, I'd better see what's going on now. Oh, Captain. Yeah. Look, like I said, George is a good friend of mine. I know him since he opened up the shop there. You know, nothing social, just business acquaintances. Well, I think I know what his trouble is. What? Well, it's three troubles, really. He likes to play the horses, he likes to drink, and he likes women. You think that explains it? Well, it explains a lot. He had a good business there, and there's no competition within blocks. He could have done all right, fine. Wine, women, and horses, you can chalk it up to that. Yes, most likely. Look, Captain, what can happen to him? I mean, is he really in big trouble here? Not if these customers get their coats back. Well, there's no law against closing up the store if he wants to, is there? I mean, he can do that. He can go out of business any time he wants. He can, if he didn't convert other people's property. Look, Captain, you want to know where he is, don't you? Yeah. Well, if I tell you, you won't let him know, will you? I don't want him to think that I turned him in, that I was disloyal. But I think it's for his own good. He's got to get straightened out. That's right, he does. Where is he? Well, he's around the corner there, in the barn grove, just around the corner. Can you come and point him out to me? Well, look, Captain, I told you I didn't want to get involved. I didn't want him to think that I had anything to do with him being turned in. Oh, just through the window. You don't have to come into the place. Well, all right, all right. Just a second. I want to tell my partner I'm going. Okay. Charlie, I'm going around the corner for a minute. I'll be right back. You know what it is, Captain? It's another story of a good guy going wrong. That's all there is to it. Did you see him this morning? Yeah, yeah. He called me up in the store. He said to meet him in the barn grove. He didn't dare come near his place with all the women around. Well, I went there and he poured his troubles out to me. Captain, the guy's feeling in a jam. He wants to do the right thing. I know that. He wants to. He told me that. And why is he planning on skipping town? Oh, I didn't know he was planning on skipping town. He moved out of his flat yesterday, left no forwarding address. The landlady thought that they were going to Chicago, he and his wife. Okay. He never told me that. Oh, there's the place right down there. Oh, Chicago. That's funny. He never told me that at all. Well, it might not be so. We don't know it for a fact. Oh, look, I don't want to go in there, Captain. I don't want him to see me with you. All right, we'll...we'll walk by the place once. Straight by it. You look inside and tell me if you see him. All right. Well? Yeah, I see him. He's in the second booth, toward the window there. All right, Lou. Thank you. Oh, and Captain, please. Don't tell him it was me that turned him in. You know, friends are friends. I think I'm doing it for his own good. You agree with me? Yes, I agree with you. Yeah, well, I better get back to the store. Go ahead. Yeah, I'll see you, Captain. Mr. Rodley? Oh. Hello. You're the Mr. Rodley that runs the Fern Hill for you? Mr. Rodley who did run the Fern Hill for us. A lot of women are looking for you. I know it. I know they are. Shane's too bad. I think you better come with me. Not to the store, huh? You're not going to take me over there? No, to the station house. That's good. Any place but the store, huh? Can I have a drink before we go? No, no, thank you. There's one last cup in this, you mind? Go ahead. Thanks. Well, you know, you dread the day. You know what's going to happen, but you dread the day. Not like that at all. It's a big relief when it's all over. Get to my car without his being noticed in front of the shop down the block. On the route to the station house, he began to tell me of his troubles. He continued as we got out of the car, walked up the front steps, and into the muscle room. Everything went wrong. Nothing went right. Hi there, Mr. Rodley. What, Captain? Fred, this is Mr. George Rodley. You know, he's been causing a revolution, huh? Well, I didn't know it was that bad. It isn't. It's a night like a lady's night on a trickish back around here. Are there any complainants upstairs in the Detectives? According to my last census, Captain, there were seven steamy red females up there, all with murder in their hearts. Can you imagine? Who had the ring upstairs to Lieutenant King? Tell him I've got Mr. Rodley and I'm taking him into my office. Yes, sir. Thanks, Captain. Oh, thank you, Sergeant. I've got to protect city property as well as you. There's Lieutenant Garman. Let me talk to Lieutenant King. I guess I'm pretty much city property now, too, huh? Yes, pretty much. Inside. Mr. Rodley and his wife. All right. Sit down over there, Mr. Rodley. Thank you. Right here? That's fine. I, uh, suppose I'm entitled to get a lawyer, huh? Oh, sure. You're entitled to a lawyer. I don't know how much good it'll do me. I don't have any money for one. Oh, what a mess. What a mess I got myself into. If you'd give these women back, they're far as it wouldn't be so bad. I'd like to, Captain. Believe me, but I can't. I'd sure like to. Yes? Lieutenant King. Come in, man. Hello, Captain. Hello, man. This is Mr. George Rodley. Yeah, that's right. I'm Lieutenant King. Glad to know you. I don't know whether I can say the same thing, but I sure heard a lot about you this morning. I can imagine. Why do you got all these ladies' coats? Well, that's just it. I don't have them. Well, what did you do with them? Well, last spring when the weather began to get warm and they didn't need their four coats anymore, the customers started to bring them in for storage and for repairs. Yeah? Well, it so happened that at that time, last April or May, I was in desperate need of money. So instead of storing them, you sold them? No. I'd rather wait. I had every intention of giving the women back their coats. Every intention in the world. When I first started, I pawned them. I took them around to different shops and I got loans on them. You were going to regain the loans in time to have the coats ready for the women on the floor? Yeah, that was my intention. What did you use the money for that you got from pawning the coats? Well, fish and debts, my rent, and to bet on the horses. Little bit? Well, you know it's more than a little bit. All right, I bet on them a lot. How many coats did you pawn? Oh, I don't know. It's been about 100, 125, maybe 150. Bet you pawned? Yeah, that's all I pawned, but you know, I sold some outright too. Oh, did you? Yeah. See, long about the middle of May and the first of June, things got really bad. I mean, terrible. No favorites were winning. I had a favorites for winning all right, but when they won, I wasn't on them. How many coats did you sell outright? 75, 100. What did you sell them to? Other furries. What did you tell them? I told them the customers left the coats with me to be sold. Or that they had traded them in on something else. The other furries and I negotiated a price and they bought them. How much money was involved altogether? Any idea? Yeah, I got an idea. Up my $20,000. How much do you have left? About 500. 500 out of 20,000. That's the way things go. Things sure went pretty bad as far as you were concerned. Sure did. But I had no intention of taking anything from anybody. I didn't want to cheat those women honest. I didn't want to sell their coats. It was just the situation that I found myself in. I was desperately pressed for money. You got no idea. Yeah, sure I know. I was being squeezed from all sides. You haven't seen any squeezing yet, Mr. Audley. Worst of it is just about to start. Yeah, I know. Twenty thousand dollars. But it was my intention to make every penny of it good, to give every woman back a coat. It might have been, as long as you were pawning them, you might have had the intention to redeem them in time for this fall. When you began selling them outright, that intention went out the window. When did you expect to tell all these women when they presented their receipts and wanted the coats? I don't know. I expected to have the coats, that's all. I always expected a windfall. I expected something to happen. I don't know what. Have you told most of the post outright? What were you going to tell the women in those cases? I don't know. I got no idea. I'd have told them something. I'd have stole them off, I guess, that's all. Why'd you keep the store open so long? You knew you were in a big jam in the middle of the summer, didn't you? Yeah, sure I knew it. You moved out of your room, you and your wife. That's right. Where are you staying now? Well, we don't have a place. Where's your wife? She's at a friend's house out in Kew Gardens. Where were you planning to stay tonight? Well, we, uh, we hadn't been told that you were on your way to Chicago, but you were leaving today. How'd you find out? Isn't it true? Yes, it's true. Well, if you were going to skip, why didn't you really skip? What did you come back to the shop for and sit in the bar around the corner from it? That's another story. Oh, I'm sure we'd like to hear it. All right, all right, if you'd like to hear it. See, my wife was packing yesterday. Naturally, she's a little upset about this whole thing. Not really. As much as me. So we were packing to go to Chicago. Yeah. All of a sudden she reminded herself she didn't have a coat. Her own for a coat? Yeah, the three-quarter length of main coat. Wild, Canadian. I made it for about three years ago. So she said, where is it? I said, honey, it's in the vault down at the shop. So immediately she got suspicious. She accused me of selling it, of pawning it along with the rest of them. I said, honey, I wouldn't do that to your coat. I wouldn't do that at all. She didn't believe me. And it is there on us. It's in the vault down there. I wouldn't do a thing like that to her. It's my wife. I wouldn't sell her coat. It's the only one you didn't sell, huh? No, there's a few I didn't sell, but I didn't sell hers. I didn't pawn it. It's really in the vault down at the shop. But she didn't believe you? No. She was sure I'd sold it. So she said either I go to the shop and get the coat or she don't go to Chicago with me. And that's why you were hanging around the neighborhood in the bar. Of course, I couldn't go near the shop. I couldn't get in with all those women around there. And I couldn't go get my wife until I had her coat. I guess I'd have been better off if I'd have sold it. It was brought $1,500, maybe $2,000. 21st precinct, Captain Cannelly. Captain, one of the women must have saw Mr. Audley go into your office. It's the water tower. They're all out in the mushroom room now. They're crying for smuts. How many? Oh, seven or eight. All right, thanks. Well, we found out you're here, Mr. Audley. There's a delegation of women right outside that door. There is, huh? Yes, there is. Well, might as well face the music. Take my word for it, Mr. Audley. It's not going to be music. Twenty-first precinct, Sergeant Waters. Yeah? What's the trouble? And so it goes, around the clock, through the week, every day, every year. A police precinct in the city of New York is a flesh-and-blood merry-go-round. Anyone can catch the brass ring, or the brass ring can catch anyone. Twenty-first precinct, transcribed. A factual account of the way the police work in the world's largest city is presented with the official cooperation of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, an organization of more than 20,000 members of the police department's city of New York. Everett Sloan in the role of Captain Kennelly, Ken Lynch as Lieutenant King, Harold Stone as Sergeant Waters. Featured in tonight's cast were Santa Sartegna, Mandel Kramer, Larry Haynes, Susan Strong, Elspeth Erick, and Gladys Dawson. Written and directed by Stanley Niss. Produced for CBS Radio by John Ives. Arthana Speaks.
