User Reviews

DRAGNET – "The Big Number" – 1955 The boys, Jack Webb and Ben Alexander are working the day shift out of robbery division. They get a call that there has been a bank robbery just four blocks away. Into their car they leap and speed to the scene.

They are however too late to catch the crook. They question the bank manager and the guard for a quick description. They hand this off to the other cops to pursue. Webb and Alexander then begin an in-depth interview of the manager, Jonathan Hole, and the guard, Ben Morris.

The guard tells them that the robber stuck a sawed off in his face and told him to behave. He then grabbed the manager and forced him to empty the cash drawers into a bag. The man then ran out and jumped into a car he had parked outside.

The guard tells Webb that he did get the first three numbers of the car tags. The Detectives head back to the office to check the files. F.B.I. agent, Douglas Kennedy, soon joins Webb and Alexander. Bank robbery is a Federal beef.

Several more teams of Detectives and more F.B.I. types start going through all 10,000 files that start with that tag number. Eight hours later, they have narrowed it down to 300 or so. They check out all the names and finally hit pay dirt on the seventh last name.

The Detectives and F.B.I. agent Kennedy check with the woman next door for some info on the man. She gives them a description that matches the hold-up man.

Guns are drawn and doors are kicked in. Inside the house they find Simon Scott, a bag of cash, and a sawed off two barrel shotgun. Cuffs are quickly slapped on the man and he is hauled off to the clink. He gets twenty years for his failed attempt at wealth.

Jack Webb directed the episode while series regular Edward Colman was the D of P. (b/w)

Season 4 Episode 30 Review - The Big Number Aired 3-24-55 Great story, well played episode of a bank robber, partially identified, with vehicle, the procedures mandatory and necessary to execute when tracking a bank heist.

Friday, Smith are working the day-watch out of Robbery Division, a call comes for them to investigate a robbery just taking place. They meet with the bank manager, his plain-clothes-security adjunct, each providing a description of the robber, his clothes and his car. They disagree on the car-make and color, plus disagree on the color of his shirt. Later, other bank employees, describe the car the same given by the security adjunct, who also provides Friday, Smith with the first three characters of the license plate. Through a methodical check of records for all green Ford sedan's with plates starting with 1U5, the detectives were left with seven remaining, after days of interviewing people living next to the suspects.

The overzealous neighbor to the prime suspect makes the mistake of informing the man the police are about to call on him. She didn't mean anything complicit, just stupid. Friday kicks open the door, as the suspect is burning stolen money in his fireplace. He and the wife are cuffed, hauled out of the house, as the FBI agent puts the stolen currency in the bag used in the robbery. The bank robber's past doing time at San Quentin, helped police also identify him, because it was his brother's vehicle he was using. The wife is found non-complicit, just married.