Highway Patrol1955

[first lines]

Narrator:
In the endless battle against crime, law enforcement agencies are sometimes called upon to apprehend a particularly elusive type of criminal, such as the professional check forger. The thief with a pen has one unique advantage over the thief with a gun. A worthless check is like a bomb with a delayed-action fuse. By the time the damage is discovered, the criminal is miles away. The passer of forged checks is not necessarily a glib, well-dressed con artist. In a manufacturing area, he may look like any honest factory worker. Or the forger may appear to be an average housewife, presenting her husband's paycheck to a neighborhood merchant. Late in May, the Highway Patrol became aware that a ring of highly-skilled check forgers was operating in the state. Their targets were manufacturing plants employing large numbers of workers in semiskilled capacities.

Chief Dan Mathews:
[on the telephone] Four firms have been victims in the past two months, including yours. These crooks are experts. But look, they're human. They gotta make mistakes someplace. We're gonna send the checks to our lab for the full treatment. I'll let you know.

Narrator:
Highway Patrol laboratory technicians subjected the forged checks to careful examination. The printing was identified as to type style, and paper stock analyzed by experts.