By Michael D. Martin, E.C.P.D.
Retired
About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the 1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his experiences.
XLIX. Eden P.D.'s Million Dollar Haul
I guess this was 1987 or 1988, I was the Detective
Captain and it was my job to review the cases that came in and assign those
worthy of investigation to my detectives. Serious cases involving personal
injury or great loss of property were given prority and then, there were
those cases with a low possibility of solution that were handed out and the
detectives knew where their major efforts were to be directed.
On this morning, one case had to do with a
counterfeit twenty dollar bill passed at a local nightspot. Actually, that
was not a high priority case for local police as we depended on the United
States Treasury to do whatever investigations they deemed necessary. This
was a low priority case with us and I assigned the matter to Detective Barry
Joe Carter. All I really expected was that Detective Carter would collect
the bogus twenty, try for prints and forward it to Treasury with a report
and we would close the case as "Referral"
On this particular case, Barry made a few phone
calls and found out that this was the only "twenty" passed
at the bar that night and the bartender remembered who gave it to him.
Interviews were held and the bartender named a young woman who lived on 700
near Ruffin, N.C. and gave descriptions of two brothers who were with her
and a description of another man who was a stranger. Detective Carter had
bitten into the seat of this case and was not about to turn loose until
somebody squalled. A message was sent to Charlotte office of the United
States Treasury and it was learned that they had several of these same bogus
bills turning up across North Carolina and they had some work completed on
the matter.
Detective Carter and a United States Federal
officer did some preliminary interviews, they picked up the woman, who had
no idea that the bills were counterfeit and she named Billy Brudie from the
state of Mass. way up north. He was the man that had all the money and they
were just partying with him and spending his money.
Before I knew what was going on, we
were inundated with federal officers with big gold badges who wanted to do
something and we all had a meeting in my office. It seems that the feds from
Charlotte arrived with much enthusiasm and not much equipment. Eden City PD
solved the problems as we had new radios and a '93 Ford Conversion Van that
we used on Narcotics operations and a couple of junky old surveillance
vehicles. The T-men were blown away as we headed out for 700 to set up surveillance
and find the Yankee boy who had too much money. We had the T-men in our van
and we found places to park and watch the farmhouse where our Yankee boy was
staying. Our other cars were on the road and The Rockingham County Sheriff's
department had been notified and had cars in the area but away, out of
sight, ready to respond if shooting started.
I swear now, I do not remember who it was, but one
of our guys decided to go have a "look see" as our boy had not
shown, we knew the car we were looking for because Detective Barry Carter
and the Treasury guys had rolld the female into an informant...Well, our guy
pulled out to go look and ran right into our suspect, who made them for cops
and a full blown, bona fide road race ensued.....Our suspect did not know
the county and he did not know the roads, but somehow........he managed to
flee, blindly and get away...we had the woman and we had the two brothers
and we had much more work to be done to get the Yankee boy, Brudie.
Brudie did not know that we had rolled everybody
but him and he made the mistake of calling the woman to pick him up near the
waffle house on 29 bypass at Reidsville. The boys from the Sheriff's
Department were not to be denied a second time and they showed up at the
appointed time with dogs....Brudie ran into the woods and hid in a briar patch..........the
dogs drug his briar scratched and teeth bitten butt out and the deputies
cuffed him. In the time that ensued, the Treasury guys executed a search
warrant on the farm house and his car and found information that led to a
man in Charlotte, North Carolina where they seized him and four hundred
thousand dollars worth of counterfeit twenties, four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars worth of counterfiet money orders and the plates for each,
along with the printing press.....
This was Detective Barry Carter's finest hour. But I am the man who got the letter from the supervisor of the Charlotte, North Carolina regional office of the United States Treasury which indicated that his men were duly impressed with Eden City Police Detectives and his office was abuzz with tales of the operation.
Michael D. Martin