Evening star., 1937-03-21
Bv Louis Selding.


squad If any one has broken INTO
your house, forced their way into
YOUR store or Office or car, held up
your clerks or locked your cashier IN
the refrigerator while he went through
the safe or till, you will be familiar
enough with the ramshackle old build
Ing on Indiana avenue where In
spector Bernard w. Thompson, as
sistant superintendent commanding
the Detective Bureau of the Metro
politan Police Force, directs the men
who haul criminals into court and re-
cover, eight times out of ten, your
stolen property.
But if you are of that majority of
Washington citizens who only read
in astonishment and indignation of
the bold hold-upS, the marauderS in
apartments or homes, or the highway
bandit and note with satisfaction re-
ports of their subsequent capture and
punishment, you will probably be in
terested in a closer view of the men
back of the WorkS-the fellows who
track them down, round them up and
bring them in to justice.
Just exactly what happens when
robbery is committed in the District
of Columbia? And what are the steps
in the capture of the criminal?
First of all, there are only certain
types of robbery that engage the
special attention of the robbery squad.
The members Of this squad form
sort of legion of honor on the police
force, for they have been assigned to
this branch of the service because OF
long honorable and ofttimes dis
tinguished efforts in detective work
generally. 1t takes brave man to
be on the robbery squad, minimize its
dangers as they will F'o the squad
specianzes in crimes of violence IN
connection with robbery, such as
hold-ups, staged in any one OF the
unpleasant fashions outlined above.
The "strong- arms" for example,
is one type of hold-up that Is the
special business Of the squad to in
vestigate. Detective Sergt. Lawrence
A. ODea, who has been on the squad
since its origin ir 1881, and a mem
Der O. the detective force for 43 years,
and who is its present officer in
charge, casts some light on the fine
points of hold-up by this method 1t
originated, he states, in Georgia and
has been used extensively in other
parts of the South. 1t is occurring
with greater frequency in the Dis
trict, of late, according to members
of the squad, and was first employed
by those who did not have the price
of a gun with which to threaten their
victims into submission. Usually
working from dark alley, criminals
employing this method operate in
pairs. One of the pair wears tennis
shoes or sneakers" He is the
"strong AS the victim passes
a dark entrance or alleyWay he jumps
out, seizing him from behind, his arm
about his throat, and holds back his
head, almost to the point of strangu-
lation, while his partner goes through
the victims pockets. First, however,
once the victim is held in this man
ner, the partner pulls down the help
less mans trousers to his hips, so
that immediate pursuit is hampered
when he has been released.
The yoke" is a form of hold-up
worked by two or three men together
One of the group will walk up to the
prospective victim and casually ask
him for a match or the time. When
the man reaches into mis- pocket to
accommodate the scoundrel, he is
Jumped on by the others and promptly
"frisked" for his pocketbook or other
Valuables.
THE "stop-hght" stick-up is IA
miliar method Of hold-up, par
ticularly in large cities where traffic
is dense. 1t has been employed quite
frequently in the District, and re-
Gently there was one case that re-
ceived front-page attention because
of the insolent daring of its perpe-
traitors. BY this method the bandit
waits until some car he has picked
as promising is forced to halt at.
red light. just before the light
changes the bandi jumps on the run
ming board opens the door and slides
in, holding gun against the ribs OF
his victim in a way that cannot be
discerned outside of the car. He then
orders the victim to drive to some
designated spot, where he robs him
of everything he has, including his
automobile A few weeks ago two
young bandits, working in this fash
ion, Communicated a car at the
busiest hour of the day at one Of the
Districts busiest corners, and rode
all around town with their victim,
holding a gun in his back, without
being suspected by any of the po-
licemen they passed on the way, nor
by any of the pedestrians or occu-
pants of cars that in many instances
pulled right up alongside when the
lights changed
The snatch" is another form of
robbery familiar to the streets of
cities. In this, the bandit selects
some victim, usually woman, whose
pocketbook can be snatched easily.
He must be light and swift of hand
and feet of foot to get away with 1t.
But some youths are trained in this
particular piece of banditry and take
great pride in their proWess. The
ton, too, gaining his spoils by stealth
and seizure. Then there are, of course,
the straight hold-ups, where weapons
are held on the Victim while he is
robbed.
In the hold-up-b by firearms classifl-
cation belong all those robberies that
occur in grocery stores or markets or
in ice cream parlors. Often in grocery
stores the clerks are forced into the
refrigerator and locked u while the
crime is committed But just as
often one man holds gun on his
victim while another does the actual
robbing of the till or safe, if that is
easily accessible. The true safe rob-
Der belongs in still another classifi-
cation.
In addition to these types of rob-
berry, the squad under Detective Sergt.