The Big Brink

Originally Aired: December 15, 1953

Dragnet #226, "The Big Brink,"

Detective Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are working the night watch out of robbery detail when they receive a promising break in a major case. Ten days earlier, three armed men hijacked a bank truck on Wilshire Boulevard using sawed-off shotguns, making off with over $100,000 in cash. They forced the drivers to the San Fernando Valley, where they beat and tied up the victims before escaping with the money. Despite intensive investigation by both the LAPD and the FBI, including fingerprint analysis, mug book searches, and nationwide alerts, the case has yielded no solid leads—until now.

An anonymous informant calls with critical information, proving his credibility by providing serial numbers from the stolen bills. He promises to reveal where the suspects can be found but warns that the three men are heavily armed and dangerous. When he finally calls back from San Francisco with an address on Garfield Place, he ominously tells Friday the suspects won't be taken alive. Friday assembles a team of nine robbery detectives and three FBI units to surround the apartment building at 1657 Garfield Place. After evacuating other residents, they move in at 1:36 a.m., finding suspect Hank Peterson and an arsenal of weapons—but his two accomplices, Harvey Fitzgerald and Lou Colton, remain at large.

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