(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast #27 – Podcast #222, which was released on July 24, 2024.)
If you were to go to 3109 Century Boulevard in South Gate, California today, you would find that it is home to Esteban’s Liquors. But back on Thursday, February 19, 1953, it was the location of a small neighborhood grocery store.
It was on that day that Howard and Shirley Bailey sent their 5-year-old son Danny to that store to pick up some groceries. The family lived right around the corner at 10631 San Jose Avenue, so it was little more than a hop, skip, and jump for Danny to make his way to the store. His shopping list included a loaf of bread, apples, oranges, and some bananas.
As Danny stood at the checkout register with his groceries, a bandit brandishing a gun entered the store. For some unknown reason, that mean, bad man ordered the store owner, Rand Hill, into the back of the building. That was a stupid mistake on the thief’s part since Rand ran to the phone and called the police.
Meanwhile, the bandit was left out front with young Danny. But Danny wasn’t too concerned. He felt like it was as if he was watching a television show.
But Danny could see that the gunman was getting a bit nervous and was about to make his escape. That’s when he saw Danny’s clenched fist around the $1 bill that his parents had given him to pay for the groceries. The bandit snatched the bill out of Danny’s hand and made a run for it.
What that bandit didn’t know was that Danny’s parents had really given him $1.50 (~$17.65 today) to shop with. A dollar bill and two quarters. And Danny had outsmarted the crook.
“I still got them quarters,” Danny said. “I hid ‘em under the bread.”
Danny’s story made the front page of the Los Angeles Times the next day, and he was treated like a hero by his class at the Stanford Elementary School.
He told his story to his classmates, “He had a real gun.” He then explained how he had hidden the two quarters from the bandit: “I just put them under the loaf and nobody knew it.”
And in the end, nothing was lost. Grocer Rand Hill came by their place and gave them a bag of groceries to make up for their loss. But Danny’s mom had only one concern and that was for her son’s safety. She told her family, “Thank God he’s safe.”
