Old Time Radio Detective — Dragnet: "Sixteen Jewel Thieves" (1949) | Full Episode

Dragnet built its reputation on the unglamorous truth of police work — real LAPD case files, the names changed to protect the innocent, and Jack Webb's Sergeant Joe Friday moving through them at the pace of a man who has done this before. In this eleventh broadcast from the summer of 1949, a wave of burglaries is rolling across Los Angeles: sixteen jobs in sixteen nights, one every night, each one carrying the same unmistakable trademark. Thousands of dollars in jewels are gone and the man taking them is a craftsman. Friday and Sergeant Ben Romero work the pattern until it points to Walter Tracy — and then learn that catching the thief was the easy half. Tracy won't say where the loot is, and a confession without recovery means nothing to sixteen robbed households. 🎧 Hundreds more classic radio shows free at https://www.vintageradioshows.com 📱 Listen anywhere with the Vintage Radio app for iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vintage-radio/id455577974