- There's a spate of recent theft at retail stores in the city and Joe Friday and his partner are on the case. The detectives question a salesgirl from a big department store downtown, but she denies any involvement. They talk to a witness who saw another woman leave a parcel containing an expensive fur coat at a local bus station. Friday then talks to a teenage girl who saw a woman discard boxes of new items in a vacant lot. The girl knows the woman's identity and soon the officers are interrogating the shoplifter, a doctor's wife with a lot of time on her hands.—Ken Miller <wkmiller704@yahoo.com> / Hans Delbruck
- Synopsis The Big Shoplift 3-11-54 Friday, Smith are working burglary, the day watch. The amount of recent thefts has prompted a meeting with the president of Anthony's, a store for women; a Mr. Charles Elliot speaks to Friday, Smith, from his office at Anthony's. Wilshire Boulevard has been hit with a number of thefts in the last couple months, internal security has not turned a clue. Mr. Elliot explains his staff has been alerted, nothing has turned up, and this recent stolen item, a mink stole, is the latest and most expensive article taken. An employee might be a suspect, eight years with the store, a Miss Dorothy Kirkman, because the missing articles have been from her two departments. Elliot shares a list of the stolen items with the policemen. Friday asks to speak with Miss Kirkman. Elliot says she quit last Saturday.
Friday, Smith talk to other employees before they drive out to Dorothy Kirkman's address, then to her new workplace. Dorothy's new employer is a Wilshire Blvd. shop near the other stores; the new employer has had no recent thefts. Speaking with Dorothy, they learn nothing new from her, other than she suspected nobody she worked with; the only thing she walked out of that store with was her paycheck. Friday, Smith had a file created of the stolen items from Anthony's, and kept a surveillance on Dorothy Kirkman for the next few weeks. Constance surveillance on known thieves amounted to nothing according to Friday's narration; tight alibis or left town.
Friday, Smith get a call the stolen mink fur turned up. A Mrs. Briggs said she found the packaged stole in the bus depot while waiting for her husband. Friday, Smith have the bus depot notify them if someone claims the package. Mrs. Briggs said a young woman likely left the package, she was sitting across from her at the bus station, she wore glasses, had dark hair, was pretty. A look for any woman matching the description, including known women shoplifters, produced nothing from the search. Stolen merchandise began showing up that was stolen, wrapped, tossed in trash bins and other locations throughout the area. The only conclusion police could draw, the person doing the stealing was a kleptomaniac, a person who enjoys stealing.
A young-girl found more stolen articles, near her home, her mother called the police. Friday, Smith question her further. The girl, Patricia Denvers, said she saw a lady take the package of articles from her arm and toss them in the empty lot nearby. She identifies the woman as married to a doctor, living next door to her girlfriend. The woman's name was Virginia Sterling, wife of a Dr. Bruce Sterling, a Beverly Hills surgeon. Virginia Sterling had no record. A check of the victimized stores found Mrs. Sterling had charge accounts at almost every one of these stores. She was regarded as a fine customer with good credit standing with all the stores.
Friday, Smith visit the Sterling house, Mrs. Sterling invited them inside. They question her whereabouts recently, Anthony's fur department, the bus depot, and the days she might have visited those spots. Mrs. Sterling said she had not been to the bus depot since she has been married, six years, and her shopping at Anthony's is limited to sportswear, not furs. Friday grills Sterling on the facts of coincidence someone meeting her description was seen at the bus station, salespeople identify her being at their stores the same days stolen merchandise was reported missing. Friday, Smith insist she leave with them to HQ, she denies the thefts and calls her husband. She has second thoughts as she was dialing the phone. Friday continues his discussion telling her she was seen tossing the merchandise in the nearby vacant lot, after shopping today. She puts down the phone, not connecting with her husband.
Friday, Smith drive Mrs. Sterling down to HQ, a police stenographer takes her complete statement in the squad room. She admitted for the series of shoplifting going on for two months, she says her kleptomania has been since her junior high school years. Her stealing intensified in college, she got kicked out of the sorority, she went to New York, stayed with an aunt, had several jobs, the thefts continued after a few years into her marriage.
Virginia Sterling was charged with three counts of grand-theft, sentences to run concurrently, not less than one but no more than ten years. She is now serving her term in the California Institute for Women, Corona, CA.
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