Thu, Dec 24, 1953
It's Christmas Eve when Father Rojas at the Old Mission Plaza Church in Los Angeles discovers that the statue of the Infant Jesus is stolen from the crib. The statue's worth is only a few dollars, but it is of great sentimental value for the parish. Friday and Smith promise to try to get it back before mass on Christmas Day, but this means that they have less than 24 hours to catch the thief.
Thu, Mar 11, 1954
There's a spate of recent theft at retail stores in the city and Joe Friday and his partner are on the case. The detectives question a salesgirl from a big department store downtown, but she denies any involvement. They talk to a witness who saw another woman leave a parcel containing an expensive fur coat at a local bus station. Friday then talks to a teenage girl who saw a woman discard boxes of new items in a vacant lot. The girl knows the woman's identity and soon the officers are interrogating the shoplifter, a doctor's wife with a lot of time on her hands.
Thu, Mar 18, 1954
A truck kills an old lady and her little grandson at a crossing and drives away. The owner of the truck asserts that he let a man called Paul borrow the truck for one hour, but he doesn't know the last name of this man or where he lives. The police must investigate all circumstances, but should Friday and Smith really spend lots of resources on trying to find a man they hardly believe exists at all?
Thu, May 27, 1954
Joe Friday interrogates a local gardener who's been arrested for holding up a grocery store. While questioning the suspect, Friday begins to doubt the man's guilt, even though he's identified as the robber by the woman who manages the store, and sets out to discover why the gardener has confessed to a crime he apparently did not commit.