People v. Wright

McMURRAY, J. pro tem.

*

Appellant expressed a desire to hijack a truck to Dave Atehley, an informer for the Los Banos Police Department who encouraged this idea. Atehley, who indicated he would help appellant steal the truck and dispose of the loot, made arrangements with the Los Banos Police Department to enable them to stake-out to apprehend appellant with the stolen truck on the early morning of November 10, 1964. In furtherance of this plan, Atehley met appellant at about 2:15 a.m, in the outskirts of Los Banos. The appellant got out of his car, pulled out two bottles of whiskey (Seagrams and Jim Beam) and said, “I just knocked off a job in Gus-tine”; they then proceeded to the Trucker’s Inn cafe where appellant exchanged a bag of coins, a blue roll and a green roll of coins, and a Kennedy-half-dollar with a piece of tape on it marked "Save" for a $20 bill.

At about 3:45 a.m. Atehley placed a call to the Los Banos police and told the-dispatcher that he was with appellant at the Trucker’s Inn and that appellant had stated he had robbed the Black and White Cafe in Gustine. The dispatcher relayed this information to Officer Mangus who was on patrol in a radio car. Chief Austin of the Los Banos Police Department, at the stalce-out of the planned hijacking, heard the call to Officer Mangus; told the dispatcher not to put out any more information on the radio; and arranged to meet Mangus at the police station. Upon arriving at the police station, Austin placed a- call to the -Gustine police and ascertained that the Black and White Cafe had been burglarized and that appel

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lant worked there. Prior to this time Austin had appellant’s criminal record which included convictions of burglary, escape and robbery. Chief Austin, Officer Decker and other policemen then went to the Trucker’s Inn and arrested appellant sometime between 4 and 5 o’clock a.m. At the time of his arrest, appellant was searched and a bottle of Seagrams V.O. (a brand of liquor which was stocked at the Black and White Cafe) was found. Thereafter, appellant gave written permission to the police to search his car; in the search, several items, which were subsequently admitted in evidence, were found. A tire iron which closely matched the pry marks on the inside of the door of the Black and White Cafe was found; a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey, which bore a tax stamp numbered 131499256, was also found. This number was related to numbers on four bottles found in the storage room of the Black and White Cafe, bearing identical initial six digits with those set forth above, and having as their last three digits, 253, 257, 258, and 259. At the time of the search, the officers saw six books of green stamps in the ear’s glove compartment, but did not take them. These were subsequently recovered from Jake Neufeld, a tow truck driver who had towed the car in. Neufeld stated that he had removed the stamps and had taken them home for safekeeping. Six books of green stamps had been taken from the Black and White Cafe, one of the books beginning with a page of upside-down stamps. Among the six books of stamps taken from appellant’s car was one with such a first page.