In the Dragnet episode '22 Rifle for Christmas,' the story begins with the unsettling report of a nine-year-old boy, Stanley Johnstone, who has gone missing from his home. Detectives Joe Friday and Frank Smith are assigned to the homicide detail, as the circumstances surrounding the boy's disappearance raise suspicions of foul play. The detectives arrive at the scene, where they are met with a neighborhood in distress, and the mother, Mrs. Johnstone, is understandably frantic about her son's whereabouts.