First Aired - March 23, 1967
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are working in the burglary division. Mrs. Francine Graham claims that someone had broken into her home and stole her jade jewelry worth at least $200,000note . Friday and Gannon start to investigate but cannot get a straight story from the woman. Her insurance agent starts to think fraud is happening.
Just the Tropes, ma'am:
- Affably Evil: Ben Martin is very polite, feels like the police are his friends and also admits to all of his crimes.
- Evolving Credits: This is the first episode to bring in the iconic font that is used for the 1960s series opening. The color is still the white with blue outline until the next episode that replaces the blue with the yellow color.
- Fall Guy: Ben Martin broke into Mrs. Graham's house, however he didn't do anything but touch the fish bowl. Mrs. Graham tries to blame Ben Martin but he doesn't have the skills to break into the safe where the jade was.
- Insurance Fraud: Friday and Gannon start to believe this when they are getting conflicting stores about the jade. Turns out Mrs. Graham sold the Jade a long time ago.
- Ransacked Room: Mrs. Graham's room with the jade is ransacked when the burger broke in. Turns out Mrs. Graham ransacked the room when she heard that Ben Martin was in her house to make it seem that she was robbed.
- Riches to Rags: Mrs. Graham is really close to bankrupt as her husband had no personal insurance when he died. Only the Jade jewelry was insured. She has sold almost everything to make ends meet and is close to losing the house.
- Safecracking: It was originally thought that the safe was broken into. However the forensics team could not find anything showing it was forced open. The burglar had to know the combination in order to get in. Turns out they were correct, Mrs. Graham opened the safe herself.
- Villains Never Lie: Ben Martin admits to all of his crimes. He also admits to breaking into Mrs. Graham house but says that he didn't steal anything. He realizes it was a dud and can't believe Friday is looking into it. In fact, it is because he told the truth that Friday and Gannon believe him over Mrs. Graham, who has been changing her story on the robbery.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The original case Friday and Gannon were looking into, about a string of expensive jewels being stolen, is forgotten about once the case about Mrs. Graham starts.
