If bootleggers persist in using automobiles, they had better have them armor-plated before operating in the zone frequented by City Detectives Moser and West, whose latest achievement was to capture Saturday afternoon a Nash sedan, three gallons of liquor in it, after chasing the car five blocks and puncturing it with five shots from their 38 calibre pistols.
As a consequence of a running battle and one of the most exciting episodes staged in the Brooklyn section of Charlotte in recent months, Tom Ferris, a Syrian youth, was arrested and his sister, Annie Azer, known in police circles as “Dago Annie,” was arrested later. Both were released on $1,000 bond each after arrest. A negro who was riding in the Nash sedan on South Caldwell Street with Tom Ferris got away by jumping out of the car as it sped down South Caldwell Street. Annie was arrested at her home on North Davidson Street and 10 gallons of liquor was found in her house. She admitted the three gallons of liquor found in the Nash car was hers also.
The arrest of the Syrian woman and man and the overhauling of the sedan after a fusillade of shots had been fired at it was exciting to a degree and the negro population of Brooklyn came for blocks to see what had happened. In the wild drive of the car down Caldwell Street, a mule was killed and a wagon, to which it was attached, was broken to bits.
The mule was found to have two broken legs and the officers shot it to put it out of its misery. It and the wagon belonged to Uncle Abe Robinson, a highly respected and aged negro, living on the Mason Wallace place in Sharon township. The officers later sent the old negro, who was visiting his daughter on South Caldwell Street, home in the police car.
Recognizing the car as Dago Annie’s and the Syrian youth as her brother, they went to her house and found 10 gallons of corn liquor. She admitted ownership of the car and the liquor, both that found in the car and that found at her home. She and her brother will be tried Monday morning for handling liquor.
“If the law had allowed me,” said Chief Walter B. Orr of the police force, after the incident, “I would have donated the Nash car to the old negro to make good the loss of his mule and wagon. But the legal requirement is that the car be confiscated and sold at auction.”
The Syrian has never been arrested before for handling liquor but has been arrested and charged with vagrancy and immoral practices. She made bond for herself and her brother without delay.
From The Charlotte News, Oct. 23, 1921. Dago is an offensive term referring to people of Mediterranean heritage.
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