The Magic Clean Robbery Story

                                                The Magic Clean Robbery Story

                                      A true story about the Miami Police in action

                                                                    1989

                                       Written 5/06/2015 and Re-written 10/2016

                                                             Howard Yasgar

 

     It was on a summer afternoon in 1989.

     I was sitting in my office when there was a phone call, my secretary said it was Adrian.

     Adrian  was the owner of a gas station located on the corner of NW 36 Ave and 46th Street in Miami.

     Our main office was on 4500 NW 36 Avenue, only  a few hundred yards down the street from behind Adrian’s gas station.  

     Adrian’s gas station was also  located right across the street from another of the buildings my company owned.

     That building was as on an opposite corner from Adrian’s gas station  on NW 46th Street.

     It was a 4000 square foot  building with an additional 4000 square foot outside yard.

     The yard was closed in back and on the left side by adjacent buildings and it had a cement wall and gate that was facing Adrian’s gas station.

    The cement wall was about 6 foot tall with another two feet  of welded metal railing above it. There was also an eight foot page wire sliding gate.

    The cement wall, railing and 8 foot tall sliding gate, all had razor sharp concertina wire fastened above it.

    That concertina wire was so sharp, it was almost impossible to slide the gate

open without getting cut.

    We were using the building and it’s yard to store used automotive parts.  

    When Adrian called, he spoke to my partner Don and he said, “You guys better get over here right away, two guys are breaking into your storage yard and they are right across the street from me, he said, I’m watching them as I talk to you”.

    As I was sitting next to Don, I heard the entire conversation.

    I knew  the building Adrian was referring to was one of our warehouses that had a fenced in outdoor storage yard, and was located right across from his gas station.

    We referred to the building as our “Magic Clean” building, having named it after the carpet cleaning company that we had bought it from.

    As soon as my partner Don received that call from Adrian, he immediately told Adrian to please call the police.

    As soon as he hung up the phone, my partner Don, started looking for his own police emergency phone number book, he wanted to call police station also.

    While my partner Don was phoning the police, I went right out into our shop area, and our warehouse area where I rounded up a posse of around eight employees, one of which was my son Jack.

    We left our main building and we all quickly walked to Adrian’s station.

    Our intention was to see from the gas station exactly what the hell was going on.

    My partner Don quickly  joined us, he said that he had just reached the police department and had given them the address of where the break in was taking place.

     So now, all of us had left our main building, and we were jogging up the street to Adrian’s gas station.

     Once there, we were planning on waiting for the Police to come and confront the guys breaking into our building.

     Once we were all gathered together in Adrian’s gas station, we looked across the street and clearly saw a faded maroon four door 1972 Chevrolet sedan parked in front of the gate of our Magic Clean building.

     The car was partially on the buildings lawn, but it was backed up to the driveway leading to the gate of the Magic Clean yard.

     All the cars windows were wide open, and so was the cars trunk.

     We watched as a colored fellow who was in the drivers seat spotted us looking at him.

     We saw him looking at us, but we still didn’t make a move to cross the street.

     My partner, went into Adrian’s office and used his phone to call the Police again.

     Adrian told us he thought there were just two guys involved.

one of them had already climbed over the gate with the concertina wire and he was hiding inside the yard.

     Naturally we were all hoping that the Police would soon arrive to handle the situation for us.

     So, as nervous as we were, we all waited there in the gas station for what we thought was an eternity.

     After about fifteen minutes and no Police showing up, we all walked across the street.

     I was thinking of how to try keeping the burglars occupied while waiting until the police came.

     As soon as we crossed the street, several of our employees went to stand beside and in front of the old Chevrolet.

     We could hear its engine was still running and we saw the driver was sitting there sweating.

     Our employees told us later that they thought that the driver wouldn’t dare drive off with all of them standing there.

     I walked over to the wire gate and peered into the yard.

     It was very difficult, to see if anyone was hiding there because of all the wooden crates, and metal barrels.

     After a while I saw a short wiry looking colored fellow trying to hide behind a fifty five gallon barrel.

     I also saw that he had already piled up quite a few items right near the gate, obviously ready to steal them by throwing them over the fence

to his accomplice.

     Not knowing exactly what to do, and not knowing when the Police might arrive, I clutched the gate with both hands and tried yelling to the fellow in the yard to come out.

     He didn’t move at all, so I kept on yelling at him to come out for several minutes.

     That was when my son came over, tapped me on the shoulder and handed me his 357 magnum pistol.

     So now, here I was, waving this giant pistol in the air.

     I didn’t like having the pistol, as I knew I never would have ever pulled the trigger.

     but the guy in the yard must have seen the size of the gun, and he decided it was better to climb over the gate and come out of the yard.

     As we all stood there staring in amazement, this wiry black guy gingerly climbed over the razor sharp concertina wire on the gate without so much as even scratching himself.

     The moment he was over the fence and had hit the ground, several of our employees grabbed his arms and tried to wrestle him down to the ground.

     I watched as they struggled with him, he was strong, and even with six guys hanging on they still couldn’t get him down to the ground.

     As he dragged my guys out into the street, I put my hand on his shoulder trying to get him down.

     I watched in amazement as six of my guys were hanging on to him as he dragged them all out into the center of the street.

     Now all the traffic going by, had to slow down to get around us.

     No matter how hard my men tried, they couldn’t get him down.

     People in the cars were now yelling at us.

     Then I saw the guy wiggle free and in an instant he nosedived into the open rear window of the car, and the car took off at full speed.

     I heard someone yelling for me to shoot the car’s tires out.

     So now here we were about ten of us standing in the middle of the street, and with me standing there holding a giant 357 magnum pistol.

     Adrian’ gas station mechanics were all standing there cheering us on.

     Some cars that were driving on 46th Street had even stopped thinking there was a murder or something going on.

     As all this had transpired, still no Police ever showed up.

     We all decided to start walking back to our office.

     Adrian said to me that he had called the Police Station once again and he couldn’t understand why they hadn’t shown up.

     So besides from Adrian, and my partner, the Police had been called four times.

     Once I was back in my office I sat down in the air conditioning, I was sweating, and my hands were still shaking over what had transpired.

     I sat there in my office for about a half hour until I heard a loud commotion going on in front of our building.

     I walked outside, only to see my son in a heated conversation with an irate, red faced police officer.

     The two of them were arguing, when a second patrol car pulled up with two additional police officers in it.

     My son was asking the first officer why they hadn’t responded to the break in, and why they had not responded to our four of our phone calls.

     To this day I remember the irate, cop who was obviously out of control.

     He was visibly agitated, his face was red, and he was yelling at my son, “Do you know how far I had to drive to get here?”

     When he said that, I said to him, hey officer, that’s your job, isn’t it?

     Your job is to respond to these kinds of calls.

     We called you guys four times, and no one came, now both the crooks got away.

     Well the cop was livid and it appeared to me that he was going to pull his gun and arrest all of us.

     However, just  as he was reaching for his gun, the other two Policemen  that had just arrived, grabbed his arm and they physically held him back.

     They said, “What’s going on here?”  It appears they had already been to see Adrian on the corner and gotten an ear full from him.

     I again told them all about the guys that had broken into our property and how they had gotten away.

    That’s when the two cops said they were not here because of the robbery, or our calls.

    They said that they came because someone had called saying that some white guy with a gun was beating up a black guy in the middle of NW 46th street.

     When he said that, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.          

     After all the police left, I went back into my office, and I called the  Police Station.

     I asked them if they had received our four phone calls regarding the break in. “They said no”, they had no record of receiving any calls from us regarding it.

     So here I was, now still shaking from the altercation with the out of control police officer.

     I asked who I could speak to at the station to file a report on an out of control police officer.

     The officer I was speaking with said that to make out a complaint report against a police officer I would have to come in and speak to the Major in charge.

     I asked if I could speak to the Major now, and they said he wasn’t in.

     I calmly asked who then could I report it to, they said that I should call back later in the week and perhaps someone might be there.

     I got the message loud and clear, and I hung up the phone and gave up.