Thieves Hijack Women’s Wear While Cops Focus on Gamblers

A daring $20,000 hijack was pulled off at a busy Brooklyn intersection in broad daylight Friday while the cops were counting their take in their drive on gambling.

Three men stepped out of an auto and brandished guns at a truck driver at Utica and St. John's in Brooklyn as scores of homeward bound workers waited on the corner for buses and trolleys. The hijackers forced the driver to drive two blocks to Rochester Ave, and Lincoln Place where they bound him and his two 18 year-old helpers and placed them in the back of the truck. The crooks drove the truck to a garage and unloaded the dresses, coats, pocketbooks and nylon stockings. The looters then abandoned the vehicle and its passengers at Glenwood Road and E. 24^th where the victims attracted a passerby by banging on the side of the truck. Due to shortages, women’s clothing, particularly nylons, were a premium commodity in 1946.

The News sneeringly reported that the cops didn't have much to say about the robbery but made a big deal out of announcing that they had nabbed 190 gamblers in 24-hour period. The haul included 125 card players, 32 bookmakers and 11 crap shooters. Four were arrested for maintaining a gambling establishment and 16 for policy operations, the illegal version of today’s lotteries. The police also arrested two pickpockets at the Jamaica race track on Friday.