The Big Impossible

Originally Aired: March 15, 1953

Dragnet #195, "The Big Impossible," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a bold daylight robbery at Lamont Brothers Market. Market manager Larry Haskins is shaken but cooperative as he describes how two armed men burst into his office while he was preparing a bank deposit containing thousands in weekend receipts. The larger suspect, a mountain of a man over six feet tall with distinctive dark features and a small scar on his nose, wielded a sawed-off shotgun and made off with $6,000 in cash and $1,500 in checks. What troubles Friday and Smith is that these bandits missed an additional $7,000 sitting in the front safe, suggesting they may have left the job unfinished.

As the investigation unfolds, Friday reveals this is no isolated incident. The market bandits have been operating for eight months, hitting seventeen stores across the Southland with the same methodical pattern: striking only after weekends or holidays when receipts are highest, targeting large supermarkets, and moving so unpredictably across such a wide area that stakeouts have proven impossible. With limited witness descriptions and no fingerprints to work with, Friday and Smith face the challenging task of tracking down two experienced criminals who seem to stay one step ahead.