21st Precinct – 14 Year Old Boy And Snake Missing. (retro556)

In this undated episode, In the precinct office, Captain Canelli sends the new shift of police patrolmen on their way to protect and to serve. A distraught mother enters to get help finding her teen age son. Canelli isn’t too concerned. Teen age boys are independent enough to take care of themselves. They don’t need mommy’s apron strings around them.

Slowly, mom discloses more concern. She was afraid of the snake that her son brought home from camp. It’s poisonous… right? I mean, all snakes are poisonous… aren’t they? Canelli ibecomes more concerned about a potentially poisonous snake being let loose in the city than the 14 year old boy, and detectives are called in.

Does any of the boy’s friends know what kind of snake it is? Is there any need for concern over public safety? As the mom keeps dishing out details slowly to the authorities, it makes me wonder whether she’s really that clueless, or she’s trying to minimize her ineptness in understanding the situation. In the end, matters have a way of working out, and probably would have with, or without a worried mom dragging the police into the mix.

Still… it’s just another routine day down at the precinct, and in the life of a uniformed policeman in the big city.

Bonus Track:

Keith shares some background, limited as it is, on the program itself, and a brief bio on Everet Sloan, the actor who plays Captain Canelli. An actor who had a diverse career in all manner of entertainment media from stage screen, radio, and cartoons, and his demise in the mid 1960’s that ended his life and work.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not – About a ballet dancer.