The Big Car

Originally Aired: November 30, 1950 Dragnet #77, "The Big Car," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are working the night watch out of robbery detail, hunting for a well-dressed bandit who has hit 15 food markets in Los Angeles over four months. The case takes an unusual turn when a man named Frank Potter walks into the interrogation room volunteering a detailed confession to all the robberies. Friday and Romero quickly expose Potter's story as a fabrication—he's a troubled man seeking publicity to impress his girlfriend, and they send him to the psychopathic ward for treatment. The real bandit remains at large and strikes again at a supermarket on Santa Monica Boulevard. Manager Harry Talbot describes the same pattern: a well-dressed man with a briefcase appearing just before closing time. This time, however, there's a new lead—clerk Everett Smiley witnessed the robber leaving in a car. As Friday and Romero interview Talbot in his office, they learn the bandit's chilling method: he threatens the manager's family by name and address, forcing compliance through fear rather than just violence.