Twenty-first precinct, Sergeant Waters.
Who are you, the watchman?
Who are they breaking into?
Did you see the thieves?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, what's missing?
You are in the muster room at the twenty-first 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 one twenty-four room at the twenty-first precinct.
All right.
I'll send the officers right over there.
Yeah.
Wait right at the gate there so you can show them where it is.
Okay.
Yeah.
Twenty-first precinct transcribed.
It just lines on a 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 twenty-first.
Whether they know it or not, the security of their homes, their persons, and their property is the job of the men of the twenty-first precinct.
The twenty-first, 160 patrolmen, 11 sergeants, and four lieutenants of whom I'm the boss.
My name is Cannelli, Frank Cannelli.
I'm captain in command of the twenty-first.
I was working my day tour, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It was Sunday and things were quiet in the precinct.
During the last few weeks we had received several complaints from various churches about boys playing in nearby streets in a boisterous manner and disturbing the services.
I had given instructions at the turnout for the men on post and in sector cars to correct this situation by warning the boys to play more quietly or move their games to other locations.
Later, during the course of patrol, I went to the vicinity of every church in the precinct to observe whether the conditions had been corrected.
On route down Second Avenue I saw sector car number one.
The sergeant's car and the detective squad car of the twenty-first squad parked outside the fence around a new construction project on which excavation had started about two weeks before.
I instructed my operator to pull in.
As I got out of the car and headed for a gate in the fence, I saw Sergeant Waters also walking toward the gate from a call box on the opposite corner.
Sergeant?
Hello, Captain.
What have we got?
In here, Captain.
Oh, watch your step.
We've had a burglary and a tool shack down here.
That's a pretty deep hole they dug.
Yes, sir.
And they've got to go still deeper.
Well, what have we got?
There was a call from the watchman.
See that wooden shack way down there at the bottom?
Yeah.
That's what was broken into.
It's interesting to me how they do this.
They dig it all out except for this ramp for the trucks to get in and out.
Then that steam shovel backs up here digging up the ramp behind it.
What was stolen, Sergeant?
It's a good haul.
A what?
Eleven sticks of dynamite and eight blasting caps.
Yeah?
Yes, sir.
Watch your step here, Captain.
These planks are kind of rough.
Heavy trucks chew them up.
Where are the detectives?
Lieutenant King of Italia here, Captain.
Oh.
A watchman rying into the station house from a call box when he discovered the theft.
Lieutenant Gorman notified the detectives.
Yeah.
I just spoke to Lieutenant Gorman again and told him what it looked like.
Where is it?
That shack there?
Yes, sir.
This is some hole, you know.
And these engineers, they figured it out down to the fraction of an inch.
Yeah.
Even when they got to blast out all this rock, they shave it down over here.
Oh, I guess they're all in the shack, Captain.
Yeah, I guess so.
You see, they hacked the lock right off the door.
Everything was locked up.
That's how they got in.
First notice of this when you got back.
That's right, Lieutenant, when I got back.
Hello, man.
Captain, Mr. Bernard Curley, the watchman on the job here.
The sergeant tells me they got eleven sticks of dynamite and eight blasting caps.
Yes, sir, that's what they got, Captain Cannelly, commanding officer of the precinct.
I'm pleased to meet you, Captain. I was on the job myself.
Oh, were you?
Yes, sir, I was in the old 12th Precinct. I put my papers in 1944.
Curley, you say?
Yes, sir, I spell it K-E-R-L-Y.
Oh.
Well, how do you know exactly that it was eleven sticks of dynamite and eight blasting caps, Curley?
Well, we've got to keep close track of these things around here, the explosives, you know.
Yeah.
Now, do you see this inventory tacked up here?
Right here on the wall?
Uh-huh.
Well, that's company rules. When a fresh case is cracked open, every stick and every cap's got to be accounted for.
It's scratched off the inventory as it's used.
And a new case can't be brought in from the company office until the last case is entirely gone.
Uh-huh.
So when they finished work here Friday night, they had eleven sticks and eight caps left over.
They were locked up in here.
Where?
Right here.
Loose on the shelf?
Well, the shack was locked.
Lock didn't do much good, did it?
I guess we'll have to get a new one.
What time do you think this happened?
I know what time it happened. It happened from between a quarter to twelve and a quarter after.
You left the Primus as a quarter of down the street to a luncheonette.
I get sandwiches to bring back here.
Are you permitted to leave?
Well, company rules say we can take a half an hour off for lunch or dinner if we work in daytime.
That is, on Saturday, Sunday, or holidays.
If we're working nights, we've got to bring our meal with us. That's the rules of this company.
And you left here at a quarter to twelve?
Yes, sir.
The shack wasn't broken in until then?
No, sir. I made my rounds immediately before I left. That's another rule. The shack wasn't disturbed.
Did you see anyone suspicious hanging around the Primus this morning?
No, lieutenant, I didn't see so.
And when did you discover the theft?
As soon as it came back. I came up the gate to the top of the ramp. You know, that's just where you came in up there.
Yeah.
And I could see down here that this door to the shack was standing wide open.
I came on down. I thought whoever it was might still be inside here, but they were gone.
Then I went up to the street and I walked over to the call box and rang into the station house.
I talked to the desk officer there, Lieutenant Gorman.
Lieutenant Gorman, yes, sir. Well, it wasn't a couple of minutes before the officers got here.
Did they use a lot of dynamite on this job here?
A lot of dynamite. We've been blasting for ten days.
You saw no sign of these thieves at all when you were coming back?
No, sir, they were gone.
Did you take a look around, Matt? They might have been scared off by his coming back and hitting the stuff on the Primus or something.
I doubt it.
They might have, Captain.
Sergeant, Talley, Woods.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Set up into teams of two, make a thorough search around, go over the power shovel, do all the equipment behind that lumber, every place.
Yes, sir.
Look and see if they dropped any of the stuff or left any physical evidence of their presence.
Mr. Curley, you go with the Sergeant.
Okay.
I ought to notify my boss, don't you think?
You can do that as soon as you get through.
Come on, Mr. Curley.
Yo, Matt. Come in over there.
Matt.
Yes, Captain.
It didn't take much to get this locker off, did it?
No, sir, not much.
One good pull on whatever they used for a jimmy and the screws came right out of the wood.
Yeah.
This shack is probably 30 years old. They move it around from job to job.
Come on inside a second, Matt.
Yes, sir.
That can cause a lot of trouble.
Eleven sticks of dynamite and eight blasting caps.
You're telling me.
But the boys that got it knew what they were after, I'm sure.
They know how to handle it.
Safe burglars?
Yes, sir, that's what it looks like to me.
They'll take it and boil it down to nitroglycerin and use it to shoot a safe someplace.
A long time since I've heard of anyone using nitro to shoot a safe.
I know. It ought to make it easier to spot them.
As soon as we get back to the station house, I'll ring down to the safe and loft squad and tell them what we've got.
Burglars today rip the safe or cut it open, don't they?
Well, generally, yes, sir, but the safe and loft squad might know of some old timer that's been released lately.
You ought to be able to come up with something on this.
Matt, if they were safe burglars, why didn't they take this stuff?
Here's a tank full of acetylene, oxygen, cutting torch.
This is all made to order for safe burglars.
Why didn't they take it?
Captain, if a guy likes a rare steak, he just can't talk him into pork chops well done.
The theft of the dynamite and plastic caps from this construction job did, as Lieutenant King suggested,
look like the work of safe burglars, although the use of nitroglycerin to blow up a safe is now infrequent.
A thorough search of the entire site of the excavation by patrolmen and detectives revealed nothing.
Meanwhile, I got a call from the 19th Precinct informing me that a patrolman had been slightly injured
while disarming a youthful offender carrying a switchblade knife.
The patrolman had been taken to Bellevue Hospital, and as senior officer on duty in the 6th Division,
I was required to conduct an investigation of the occurrence.
I went to Bellevue and got the details of the case from the officer who suffered a long gash on his right hand.
I entered the results of my investigation in the blotter at the 19th Precinct and then returned to the 21st,
where Sergeant Leo F. Rosen was on telephone switchboard duty and Lieutenant Patrick Gorman was desk officer.
I walked around behind the desk and signed the blotter.
Hello, Captain. Sergeant. 21st Precinct, Sergeant Rosen.
Hello, Red. Captain.
How's it going?
Nice, quiet Sunday afternoon.
That's good. How's that cup that was hurt?
Oh, not too bad.
He's got a nasty cut on his right hand straight across the palm.
Where he grabbed the open blade?
Yep. Doctor had to take seven stitches in it.
That could be kind of rough an injury to the hand like that.
Yeah.
You know, there's about nine million nerves and tendons and bones and blood vessels come together in the hand.
It'd be some job getting them all straightened out.
Well, he was able to move all his fingers, okay.
Doctor said that was a good sign.
Yeah, that is a good sign.
You know, Doctor told me once that the hand is just about as complicated as any part of the body.
You wouldn't figure that, would you, Captain?
Well, I can see where it would be.
Well, I'll be in my office.
Yes, sir.
Oh, anything turn up on the theft of that dynamite?
No, sir, nothing yet. But there's Matt King. Maybe he's got a line by now.
Yeah, he may have.
Matt?
Hello, Captain.
Anything on that dynamite theft?
No, sir, not yet.
You know, that's got me plenty worried.
Me worried too, Captain.
I'll tell you why. I...
Matt King?
Excuse me, Captain.
Yes, Sergeant?
Mattalli's ringing down 31 at the kitchen before you go out.
All right.
You want to take it in my office, Matt?
Yeah, thanks.
I'll take it in the captain's office, Sergeant.
Yeah.
Mattalli is carrying the squeal on his back.
You might have something.
Go ahead. Help yourself.
21st squad, Lieutenant King.
Yeah, V.
Yeah, what'd they say?
Well, who was it you talked to?
Who?
Well, you ought to know.
Yeah, all right, just keep at it.
Mattalli spoke to one of the men down at the safe and launch squad.
Yeah?
Mattalli says they know of no one around who's using nitro to blow us safe.
They haven't had a case like that in a couple of years.
Have there been any penitentiary releases?
None they know of. They're checking into it.
All right.
Well, it's kind of rough going, Captain.
You know what I think, Matt?
What?
I don't think it was safe burglars at all that broke into that shack.
I think it was a bunch of kids.
I don't know, Captain. It was timed out just right.
They knew when the watchman left. They knew when he got back.
They got in, got the stuff, and got out all in a half an hour.
Well, that may be so, Matt, but excuse me.
21st precinct, Captain Cannelli.
Lieutenant Gollman, Captain.
Yes, Red?
A core just came over the egg, Captain.
Explosion on a vacant lot over New York.
What kind of explosion?
They call it an site, Captain, but there must be at least one person injured.
You can get over ambulance responding.
All right.
Get a car to take me over there right away.
Yes, sir.
Well, Matt, I think we've found the dynamite.
Yeah?
Well, I think we found it a little late.
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 Cannelli.
While I waited for the car to come by the house for me,
the first officer to arrive on the scene rang into the station house,
reporting that the explosion in the vacant lot,
the site of a recently-reported explosion,
was apparently caused by the detonation of blasting caps.
An unidentified boy who appeared to be between the ages of 12 and 15 had been injured by the blast.
Within another two minutes, sector car number two arrived at the station house.
I got into the car and was driven to the scene of the occurrence with siren wide open.
As we pulled into the block, I could see that a fair-sized crowd was approaching the station house.
As we pulled into the block, I could see that a fair-sized crowd had gathered on the sidewalk
and were being kept back by two of the patrolmen already on the job.
The ambulance had not yet arrived.
All right, get on the job.
Help keep those people back.
All right.
All right, police officer, coming through there.
Coming through.
Hi, hi.
Why are you ringing for that ambulance again, sir?
Sergeant.
Hello, Captain.
Well, I guess we know who got the dynamite.
Yep, I guess we do.
He looks pretty bad, doesn't he?
Yes, sir.
Has he been conscious at all?
No, sir.
Awful bad.
You know who the boy is?
There's no identification in his pockets, Captain.
Who were?
Want to take a look over here?
Yep.
Apparently he was playing around with the blasting caps.
Those two sticks of dynamite were right here where they're laying.
It's lucky he didn't have them close enough to be set off when the cats went.
You bet you sure?
How many cats went, you know?
There's no telling, sir.
Oh, here's the ambulance.
Yep.
A man who lives on the second floor of that building there, he was down here.
He said he was looking out the window before and saw three boys sitting out here in the middle of the lot.
Three?
Yes, sir, three.
Said they had something. He didn't know what it was.
Then a little while later, two of them were gone, he said.
There was just this one left.
The man went back in and was flat to do something.
A few minutes later he heard this explosion out on the lot.
Did he recognize any of the boys?
No, sir.
He didn't think they were from this block.
All right, you men, give them a hand.
Help them bring that stretcher back here.
Did anybody around say they knew the boys, Sergeant?
Nobody. We've talked to yet.
All right, you'd better get those explosives into the station house.
Yes, sir.
I told Farrell to stay right with them.
Good.
All right, bring it right over here, please.
Hello, Doctor.
Captain.
All right, open up that stretcher. Act alive.
What happened to it?
He was playing with some blasting caps.
Was he?
Sergeant, can you give me a hand here a minute?
Sure.
I'd like to put him on his right side for just a second.
All right.
Wait a minute. I'll tell you when.
Okay.
Easy, now.
All right, with me.
Yeah.
Now. Easy.
Can you hold him there?
Sure.
That's good. That's fine. Hold him. Just hold him.
I'm holding him, Doctor.
That's great.
All right, let him rest back now.
Okay.
Easy.
That boy's seriously hurt, Captain.
Will he be all right, do you know?
We'll find out when we get him admitted to the hospital.
What did you say he was playing with? Blasting caps?
Yes.
They never learn, do they?
I hope this one does.
The ambulance surgeon, assisted by the ambulance attendant and police officers,
placed the injured boy on the stretcher.
Meanwhile, detectives of the 21st Squad arrived on the scene to begin their investigation.
After I left the scene of the occurrence, I continued on patrol until a few minutes after 2 p.m.,
when I instructed the operator of my car to drive to the emergency entrance to Beth David Hospital.
I got out of the car, walked through the emergency room,
past the admitting office, and down the corridor to the place I was told I could find Dr. Margaret Westphal.
Hello, Doctor.
Captain.
How's the boy?
Not so good.
Would you be able to do anything?
He's in there, emergency surgery.
Uh-huh.
Heading back to X-ray, we made some pictures.
He's in bad shape.
Well, the blast tore a hole in his chest.
We called in our chief thoracic surgeon. He's on the way.
In the meantime, we're giving him plasma.
Do you need any whole blood?
We don't know yet.
Every man in the precinct is typed.
I think we could get some volunteers over here on a few minutes' notice.
Thanks a lot, Captain. We'll see.
All right, you just let me know.
I will.
Lieutenant from your precinct is here, a detective.
Lieutenant King?
Yeah, Lieutenant King. He's right back there.
When did he get here?
A few minutes ago. He told me he knows who the boy is.
Oh, does he?
That's what he says. In here.
Thank you, Doctor.
Hello, Matt.
Captain.
I understand you've got an identification.
Well, it's a tentative identification. Vitaly ran it down.
We think the boy's name is Frank Harrods. He lives near where the stuff was stolen.
They ought to be more careful about the way that dangerous material is left around.
Well, Doctor, I don't see how they could have been more careful.
It was locked up in a tool shed in the middle of an excavation surrounded by an eight-foot fence.
Well, I have to be angry at something. I think I'd better get back to it.
All right. Thank you, Doctor.
You're welcome.
Shall I leave this open?
Yes, please.
All right.
Has the family been notified, Matt?
According to the neighbors, the boy's got no mother. The father wasn't around the flat.
Vitaly is trying to run him down.
Are you sure that's the boy?
Sure as we can be at the moment.
The doctor got me these clothes he was wearing.
If Vitaly brings the father down, he can look at the clothes first.
What about the other nine sticks of dynamite and the rest of the blasting caps?
We're trying to locate them.
A neighbor over where the boy got hurt said there were two others with him earlier.
Did you get a line on them?
Well, we know that they were up at this boy's flat this morning while the father was there.
You ought to know who they are.
Who found that out, Vitaly?
Yes, sir.
Old man lives on the first floor of the building.
He said he saw the three boys go out at the same time the father did.
Said the father acted very friendly to the other boys.
He'd seen them all around there before.
You haven't been able to find out who they were from any other source, have you, Matt?
Not yet, Captain.
Well, we'd better find out soon.
There's still nine sticks of that dynamite missing.
We don't know how many percussion caps.
No, we don't.
Ah, these kids.
They sure can get themselves in a mess.
Excuse me.
Lieutenant King?
Yes?
There's a detective at Vitaly and another man outside.
Oh, all right.
I didn't want to send them back here until I got you, old King.
It's okay.
All right, I'll send them back.
I wonder where Viet found him.
Maybe he came home.
How old is the boy?
You know for sure?
Well, not for sure.
I think about 14 is what the neighbors say.
14.
What are we going to do with these kids, Captain?
Isn't it a cop's job to straighten them out?
Why are they hanging on us?
The trouble is, Matt, it doesn't get to us until somebody else has already missed the boat.
Oh.
Bye for now, Mr. Harris.
Thank you.
Come in, Viet.
All right, Lieutenant.
Captain.
Vitaly?
This is Mr. Carl Harrods, Captain Cannelli.
Mr. Harrods?
Hi.
And Lieutenant King.
Hi.
Are you sure it's Frank they got in there?
Pretty sure, Mr. Harrods.
Did you shut the door, Viet?
Yes.
Well, how is he?
Is he all right?
They've got him over there in the operating room.
We're waiting for the surgeon.
A surgeon?
I hope he's not going to cost an arm and a leg.
I'm not made of money, you know.
Let's not worry about it now.
Are these Frank's clothes, Mr. Harrods?
Are these?
Yeah.
They're his.
Those are his pants.
I recognize pants.
Who is this surgeon?
Anyway, what is he going to operate for?
Detective Vitaly told you what happened, didn't he?
I told him, Lieutenant, yes.
Those caps exploded against his chest.
It's a chest surgeon that's coming.
Oh.
That's pretty bad, huh?
Yes.
How bad is it, Lieutenant?
How bad, Captain?
Bad enough.
Harrods, you know where Frank got hold of that stuff?
No, the detective told me he broke into a construction shack.
That's right.
Well, what kind of proof have you got?
You've got no proof that he broke into anything.
Nobody saw him.
The stuff he stole blew up and almost killed him.
That's proof enough, isn't it?
For you, maybe, not for me.
Mr. Harrods, do you think you ought to notify Frank's mother?
How can I notify her?
I don't know where she is.
Ran off three years ago, let me hold the sack with the kid.
He's your boy, isn't he?
Yes, sir, he's my boy, but I've got to work for a living.
I've got no time to raise him.
That should have been his mother's job.
You don't know where to find her?
No, sir.
Did you ever hear anything from her?
Kidding.
Listen, give it to me straight now.
Now, how is he?
He's not good.
Not good, no?
Who were the two boys he was with this morning?
What do you want to know that?
Still nine sticks of dynamite missing and probably most of the blasting caps.
Who were they?
How should I know who they are?
We were told that they were at your flat this morning with Frank.
They'd been there often.
You know them all.
Now, look, I'm not turning in any kids.
If you want them, go and find them.
Mr. Harrods, the same thing as liable to happen to them has happened to Frank.
That's not my worry.
Supposing it happened to one of them and Frank was running around with explosives.
You'd want it cleared up fast, wouldn't you?
I don't know.
Have all the kids all down in that court?
I'd take the chance on Frank handling himself okay.
He sure handled himself fine.
Now, look, find out for yourself.
I don't want to get involved in this any more than I am already.
Now, wait a minute, Mr. Harrods.
It's not just those other two boys that are involved.
They're liable to try something with that stuff.
They're liable to hurt some other people.
Now, who are they and where can we find them?
Go find them yourself.
It's not my responsibility.
Isn't it?
You just think it is.
It isn't.
You can't make it mine.
Come in.
I'm not going to let you.
Excuse me.
Kathy, can I see you out here a minute?
Yes, sure.
You can't make this my responsibility.
Yes, doctor?
Is that the boy's father?
Yes.
I've got bad news, Captain.
The boy died.
Oh.
The whole thoracic cavity was badly damaged.
Both lungs, the heart.
He was hemorrhaging.
There really wasn't much that could have been done.
No.
Not after he stole the explosives.
What's the father's name?
Harrods.
Carl Harrods.
Well.
Look, Doctor, this is a police case.
We can notify him.
No.
No, thank you, Captain.
I won't accomplish anything.
I won't accomplish anything except to get Frankin' bad with his friends when he gets out of here.
There's one thing I don't want to do with my kid.
That's paint him as a rat.
Rat on his friends.
Mr. Harrods, this is Dr. Weston.
That's all I've got to say, Captain.
Doctor who?
Dr. Weston.
Oh, very pleased to meet you.
Are you the one who's been taking care of Frank?
Yes.
Well, listen, what is all this about a surgeon being called in?
I don't want any surgeon called in unless I'm consulted first if he needs to be operated all right.
But I want to have the privilege, you know, of talking it over first.
He doesn't need the surgeon, Mr. Harrods.
Well, that's very good to hear.
That's...
Wait a minute.
Listen, he didn't die.
Yes, he did, Mr. Harrods.
Five minutes ago.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Here, you better sit down with me.
That's all right. I'm all right.
You're better.
Okay.
You think I'm better?
Hurt? Yeah.
I knew he was hurt bad, but I didn't think his died.
I didn't think it...
He's 14 years old.
14.
Why don't you gentlemen wait outside?
No, no, don't go.
No, don't go. I want to give them the names of the other boys.
I want to give them to you.
I'm sorry. I'll be all right now.
I'll be all right in a minute here.
We'll wait outside.
You better sit.
Why me?
No, don't go away. I want to talk to you.
We'll be right outside.
Yeah.
I was wrong about him.
I thought it was pretty hard.
He was, man.
I just wish it hadn't taken so much to soften him up.
21st Precinct, Sergeant Waters.
Shooting where?
Talk to me on the phone, will you?
Where's the shooting?
Lexington and Watt.
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 miracle round.
Anyone can catch the brass ring, or the brass ring can catch anyone.
21st Precinct transcribed the 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 of the city of New York.
Everett Sloan on the role of Captain Kennelly, Ken Lynch as Lieutenant King,
Harold Stone as Sergeant Waters.
Featured in tonight's cast were Elaine Ross, Bill Smith, Lynn Cook, Santa Sortega, and Bill Zuckert.
Written and directed by Stanley Ness.
Produced for CBS Radio by John Ives.
George Bryan speaking.