Agent deceives thieves
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UPI) More
than 300 people were tricked into selling
$2.3 million in stolen goods to a stocky,
balding undercover agent known as
"Nick the Greek" in the nation's most
successful "sting" operation, police said
yesterday.
Federal agents and police began a
roundup of 284 persons named in 686
indictments. Police . were trying to
identify another 75 who sold goods to
undercover agent Charles D. Lowe while
hidden microphones and cameras
recorded the deals.
Lowe, telling thieves he worked for the
Mafia, opened a bogus typewriter repair
shop May 5 as a front for his operation
and continued to buy until Oct. 12 when
the shop was closed. Authorities then
began tracing identities and preparing
for yesterday's raid.
Engraved calling cards identifying the
shop as C.T.&T. and including a phone
number and the motto "We buy and sell"
were circulated through prostitutes.
Although the shop's initials stood for
Blizzard blows across midwest
By United Press International
An early blizzard bowled across the
northern Plains and upper Midwest
yesterday.
Mammoth drifts and blinding sheets of
snow marooned travelers, kept
snowplows off highways and virtually,
paralyzed entire cities.
Sioux City, lowa, was all but shut
down. Rush-hour traffic was badly
snarled and public and parochial schools
closed in Omaha, Neb. The mayor of
Sioux Falls, S.D., declared a snow
emergency to battle six-foot drifts.
Blinding snows blotted out auto travel
and left streets and roads to
snowmobiles and four-wheel-drive
vehicles in western Minnesota.
The National Weather Service said
blizzard conditions swept a five-state
area covering parts of South Dakota,
North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and
lowa.
In the East, more than eight inches of
Consolidated Telegraph and Typewriter,
undercover police secretly referred to it
as "Catch Thieves and Thugs."
More than 150 of those named in in
dictments had been arrested by
yesterday afternoon.
The suspects came from ten states and
included the son of a city councilman,
brothers of two police officers and four
state prison inmates who allegedly stole
while on job assignments from a
minimum security prison. Almost 90 per
cent had past criminal records, officials
said.
"Some were a little resentful," said
Lowe, a 39-year-old federal Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms agent. "Most
were very cordial. One of them told me,
'You did a good job. You do your thing
and I'll do mine.' A lot of them take that
attitude."
Recounting his experientes for
newsmen, Lowe said he was once
arrested by police officers unaware that
he was an undercover agent. After ex
plaining, Lowe asked an officer to hit
rain in two days sent floodwaters
pouring into homes in Lodi, N.J., and
drove about 500 people from their homes
to a temporary refuge in a school. They
were carted to safety in ambulances and
National Guard trucks.
Hundreds of residents of other New
Jersey communities also were
evacuated because of floods fed by the
violent storm system that claimed 50
lives in the southern Appalachian and
Blue Ridge mountains earlier this week.
The blizzard snows swept ,northeagt
across the midlands, riding winds up to .
83 m.p.h., after dumping more than a
foot of snow in the southern Rockies.
A Weather Service spokesman said the
storm's path had been plotted and
warnings raised but, as is ofteri the case
with unseasonably early autumn storms,
many people were caught by surprise.
"It caught everybody with their
drawers down us included," said
Sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Thomas at Sioux
him as they left a building in sight of
several thieves and the policeman
complied, knocking loose a couple of his
teeth after Lowe talked to officers in
"rough language, putting on an act."
"It's hard on you," said Lowe, whose
undercover name was Nicholas, "Nick
the Greek," Becko. "It's a Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde situation. I wouldn't do it
again."
Nashville was the 25th city to host a
"sting" operation funded by the federal
Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration. Police Chief Joe Casey
said the total of arrests was higher than
in any of the previous bogus fencing
operations.
Nationally, 2,392 suspects had been
arrested in similar operations and stolen
property valued at $66 million had been
recovered prior to the Nashville
operation. Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms officials said the crime rates
in those cities have dropped from 5 to 26
per cent following the operations.
City. "My squad car's sitting in the ditch
next to my house. I slid into a bank and
couldn't move. I rode in to work with the
wrecker driver." _
Most businesses shut down, buses and
cabs remained in garages; automobiles
were ordered off the streets, and schools
were closed in Sioux City.
"Everything is at a total standstill
here everything •in town is closed
because you can't see any place," said
Rev. A.J. Elbert, a high school
superintendent
Interstate 29 was closed south of Sioux
City. Abandoned automobiles blocked
westbound lanes of Interstate 80 in
Omaha. City-operated buses ran more
than an hour behind schedule in Lincoln,
Neb.
In an 18-mile stretch east of Norfolk,
Neb., eight stranded motorists • were
plucked from cars bogged in drifts. A
highway patrol spokesman said other
motorists were reported missing."
The Daily Collegian Thursday, November 10, 1977-