Snow helps police nab thief, police cars travel enough to circle Earth 9 times: Trish Long
Weather and crime dominated the news on Friday, Jan. 3, 1947. El Paso was expected to receive another inch and a half of snow to add to the two inches that had fallen since Monday:
El Paso was the perfect picture of a “winter wonderland” Thursday after another inch and a half snowfall and continued cold weather with partly cloudy skies was predicted for Friday.
Friday’s lowest temperature was expected to be 18 degrees, while Thursday’s low was 25. Friday’s high was expected to reach 32. …
Several airline flights in and out of El Paso were canceled Wednesday night and Thursday, but bus companies said they were operating to all points.
American Airlines official said six planes which came in from the west Wednesday night were grounded at El Paso, but left for the east Thursday. Two extra planes, carrying the Virginia Polytechnic Institute football team back home, after Wednesday’s Sun Bowl game, also left Thursday.
The V.P.I. team was stranded in Dallas Thursday night by weather, the Associated Press reported. The 32-man squad, five assistant coaches and two newspapermen were unable to continue their journey to Richmond, Va., because of bad flying weather. Coach Jimmie Kitts was expected to go to Dallas in a few days by car.
Viaduct closed to traffic
Capt. Mike Snider of the police department said the Harts Mill Viaduct near Smeltertown, the Austin Street Viaduct and Scenic Drive still were closed to traffic. Brown Street Hill also was closed, said City Engineer Hal Stacy.
Snider also said that a signal light at the corner of Piedras Street and Aurora Street was cut off because cars coming down Piedra could not stop at the intersection because of the slippery pavement.
Snow helps police nab suspect
Snow helped police track down a man believed guilty of attempted automobile theft early Thursday.
The man was seen trying to enter a car parked before the F.J. McCormack residence on Magoffin Avenue about 3:11 a.m. Thursday. Frightened from the scene, the man jumped in a car and drove off.
Police, on arrival at the McCormack residence, checked tire marks of the fugitive’s car in the snow and began following them. They went south to San Antonio Street, west on San Antonio Street, back to Magoffin Avenue, and then east on Cotton Avenue.
At Bassett Street and Cotton Avenue, they caught a suspect. He had a blackjack in the car, and police booked him for carrying a prohibited weapon and attempted auto theft.
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Eight stores in Anthony burglarized
Sheriff’s deputies and New Mexico police Thursday were hunting clues to the crime wave that hit Anthony early New Year’s Day and left eight burglaries in its wake.
Located in the heart of the community on the New Mexico-Texas border, the stores caught in the wave were Chadwick’s Drug Store, Anthony Furniture Store, Ikard and Newsome Appliance Store, White’s Variety Store, Standard Gasoline Station, Anthony Dry Goods Store, Valley Cleaners and Barrett Motor Co.
The sudden crime foray is believed to have struck between 2 a.m., when the last one closed, and 7 a.m., when the first burglary was discovered.
In each case, except that of White’s Variety Store, entrance was gained through a rear door. Six of the victims’ stores were on the same side of the main Antony thoroughfare.
A case of shoes and radios were taken from Anthony Dry Goods Co., and clothing valued at $300 from White’s Variety, where a safe was wrecked when the burglars were unable to open it. A safe also was ruined in a futile attempt to crack it at Barrett Motor Co.
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Four named in burglary complaints
Four persons were name in burglary or theft complaints filed Thursday in El Paso Justice of the Peace courts.
Armando Naranjo, 20, was charged with the robbery of Joe R. Luna in the 100 block, North Piedras Street, in a Dec. 30 night holdup. Luna was slugged and Mrs. Luna threatened by the attacker, who fled with Luna’s billfold, containing $25.
Henry Thomas Jr., Fort Bliss soldier, was charged with the robbery of Abe Farmer, Pullman Co. porter, in a South El Paso café Wednesday night. Farmer told police that Thomas snatched $87 out of his hand and fled.
Guadalupe Morales, 40, was charged with the theft of an automobile from M.M. Caballero, Lower Valley, Dec. 21. Caballero said the car disappeared from a parking place in the 400 block, East Second Street. It was found abandoned in South El Paso.
Byron Decker Spaulding was charged with theft of a watch from W.L. Franklin, manager of the Del Norte Garage, last June. The watch was stolen from the glove compartment of a car left in storage. El Paso officers plan to ask extradition of Spaulding, who is serving a misdemeanor jail sentence in California.
Patrol cars girdle Earth nine times
Police radio patrol cars here traveled far enough during 1946 to go around the world nine times, according to the annual report issued Thursday night by Capt. J.W. Fitzgerald, chief of the radio patrol division.
The cars went a total of 227,866 miles. They made 17,792 calls or an average of approximately 48 calls a day.
The statement revealed radio patrolmen made an average of almost one arrest for every two calls. A total of 8,296 arrests were made.
Police furnished 1,370 escorts during the year.
Captain Fitzgerald said the 62,291 meals were served to prisoners in the city jail in the course of the year.
While the radio patrol division made 8,296 arrests in 1946, total arrests docketed by the Police Department, exclusive of parking tickets, were 12,948.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Car tracks in snow help police nab thief in January 1947: Trish Long
