For two months, a predator had been working the darkened parks and canyon roads of Los Angeles — a stocky, blonde man who flashed a badge, then turned on his victims with his fists. Fifteen robberies. Fifteen assaults. Sergeants Joe Friday and Ben Romero of the LAPD were hunting a ghost: the Badge Bandit, Charles Kirby, a man the department knew by description but couldn’t catch. When the trail finally closed in a canyon road confrontation, Kirby rammed their vehicle and vanished into the brush, leaving both detectives hospitalized. Friday walked out in two days. Romero stayed ten.
Back on duty, Friday was assigned to a decoy operation — parked on Mulholland Drive in the small hours with Policewoman Dorothy River, waiting for Kirby to take the bait. He did. The arrest came quickly, quietly — until the system stumbled.
Episode Quotes
“There’s only one way a guy like that ever quits.” — Captain Steed
“You can’t work if you don’t eat.” — Mrs. Friday
Special Thanks to Our Sponsor Tablet Pharmacy.
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