DEATERS BEWARE! Smooth, Bad-Check Artist Working Nocql Refoil Yords; Armed Robberies Increosing in Southern Colifornio

PLEASE BE ALERTED for an individual passing bad checks to retail lumber yards. He has been described as approximately 27 years of age, 5t9", weight 200 pounds, dark complexion with yellowish cast, possibly due to Hindu and mixed Mexican origin and was last believed to be in the San Jose-Palo Alto area. We urge that in accepting checks for merchandise, your yard strould either have knowledge of the individual personally or that you require all possible local identifi,cation. such as driver's license, references and license number.-Bulletin of the Lumlter \ferchants -\ssn. of Northern California, June 3, 1957.

The story behind the terse L\IANC bulletin above is this: During Aprii, one Redl'oocl City, Calif., retail lumberyard u'as taken for $1 10 in bad checks, and during l\Iay another y:rrd in the saure city u'as taken for variotts amounts. The CALII.-OI{NIA LUNf13Elt NIIIRCHANT is indebted to \\rendell H. Scott, general manager of the llerner I-ttrnlter & Hardu'are Co., Palo Alto, for the follou,ing description he uncovered of hovu' this smooth-operating "palier-hanecr" u'orks:

"The bad-check artist's metl.rod of opcration is to throu' the luml>erman or salcs clerk b1' his familiaritv u'ith the area and the material. He emphasizes the fact that he lr'ants the same materials as on the last job ancl makes an effort to be on iamiliar terms t,ith the salespeople. Generallv he oper;rtes on a Fridav or Saturd:rv, rvhen the banks are closecl, and sets it up for a trvo;tirne operation n'here the order is being rlelivered. In an effort to make it right, he calls in and asks for an addition to the order so that the salesperson's guard is don'n.

"In <ine case, thc man callre in on a F ridal', lrought $11 u,orth of material :rnd gar-e a $50 checl:. On Saturday he cerme in, bought a $6 order arrd gave a check for $(r0. 'Ihesc orders \vere to be delivered on Monday. On Nlondav. earlv. he called in and asked that the order be held. that there n'as a change in the order corning, and he u-as going to adrl some adcliticinal material. He can-re in, got a ne\\'clerk, gave a $.50 check for approximatelv $10 in mercharrclise and therr NIondav afternoon, r.vhen the order u'as deliverecl, the arldress r.vas found to ire fictitious. The pl.rone numlrer u'as also fictitious and the names rvere dranrn out of a h:rt. not orrt of a telephone book.

"In all cases, the check is made payable to a person of Mexican or Sp:rnish descent, n'hich he appears to lte. The ali;rses used have included '()rtez,' 'Flores,' 'Ititmos,' 'Sanchez,' et cetera."

In acldition to Dealer Scott of the Merner yarcls, aclditional infornration on this spook rvho has been haunting Northern California retail yards rnav be obtained from Jack Pc,rneroy, executive r.ice-president of the I-NIANC, or Harnilton Knott, Yosemite Lumber Co., Fresno, president of the de.'llers' association this year.

Latest developments in the case of this particular "paperhanger," as 'fhe l\ferchant goes to press, are that he rvas aDprehended by the police department of zr Northern Caiifornia citv early in June, turned over to the police of a Central California city on their \\'arrant, turnecl loose tu'o clzrys later and, at last report, u'as back hanging paper around the Peninsula again in mid-June.

It is reliably reported that the Central California city's police reduceri his bail and set trial for July 8, the bad-check artist paid his srnall bail and u'ent back to "\r,ork" around the Peninsula. As long as he's rvritirrg his "checks" again, it rvould appear he has no intention of facing the scheduled July 8 trial and therefore the police force that originally apirrehended hirn consider him still "at large." He is u'anted on several n arrants there right non- and, after Julv 8, will probably have the bail-jumping charge against him, too, in acldition to the original charge in that localitv. So, retail I umbermen-Il E\\'AltIl !

Souihern California lumber dealers have also been having robberl' troul>les of a different sort very recentlr'. The foilon.inq is {rorn Orrie Han.rilton's June 5 bulletin of the Southern Califorrria lietail Lurnber Assn. :

",\ nrcmber irr the Pico zirea reported that about tu-o s'eeks ago trr-o men canre ir.rto his store :rnd held up his counterman ar-rcl tciok approximatcly $70 cash fron the register. Whelr they c:u.ne to the counter thev asked about prices ()n s()nlc n-rateriai to brrild a trailer. \Vhen they iound or.ily one employee in attendance, thev producecl a gun and forced the cnrPlovee to lie or-r thc lloor and co,,.er his face.

"As tl-rev u'ere le:tving, t\\,o other emplo-v-es entered the store and these hol<lup men forced them to also lie on the floor ;rnd cor-er their faces. When one of these eurployes u'as slos' to follou, their commands. he 'n'as hit arrd kicked lrr.one of the robbers ancl qtiite badly injurecl. They als<r took $i00 fronr one of the enrployes.

"The description of the robbers is as follon's:

''Onr rrran- -22-23 vears old, l-rloncl, about 5'9" tall, rveight aborrt 150 lbs; the other nran-22-23 years old, dark hair, zrbout 5'11// tall, l'eight :rbout 165 lbs. Iloth men rvere clrcssed in levis, sport shirts -"r'ith shirttails out, r-rnder u'hich gun rvas cor-rcealed; both \\'ore caps l'ith zr bill made of tl-eed material. and both n'ore dark glasses u-hen entering store."

"It has also been reported," the bulletin continued, "that there u'ere eight other robberies and holdups ir.r the La i{abra and Buena l'ark area at about the same time. In each case of holdup the men \\rere very rough and mean. In each case they forced their victims to lie on the floor and the victims in most cases were beaten and kicked. The opinion of some of the victims is that these nren mav have been under the influence of narcotics for those u,ho could see them clearly said that their eyes r,r.ere dilated.

"While this robbery happened altout trvo u.eeks ag'o, we feel it advisable to rvarn all dealers to be on the lookout for these men and act accordingly," the SCRLA bulletin concluded.