Taking a bite out of crime in old Los Angeles:

From the �City Briefs� column in the Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1898, p. 12:

TWO BOYS ARRESTED UNDER PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES

Ralph Leach, a boy who wears a sombrero and supports his trousers with a belt too large for him, fell into an unexpected trap at the Police Station yesterday afternoon, resulting in his arrest for stealing a pair of spurs. He came to the station to inquire if a pair of spurs had been found, and he was referred to the detectives� room, where Officer Talamantes chanced to be sitting.

There was a pair of spurs there, confiscated from Peter Lockridge, a boy, when he was arrested last week by the same officer for stealing a horse from a Spaniard. Ralph was shown the spurs, and he promptly recognized them as his. He started to leave the place with them, but Officer Talamantes stopped to question him. He said he had bought them from Walter York, a boy friend of his.

Not satisfied with the answer, Talamantes started off with Leach to find York, and see what he had to say about the transaction. York could lie as readily as his young friend, and he proceeded to do so by bearing out Leach in his statements.

But when taken to the station, however, both wavered and finally admitted that they had stolen the spurs from E.J. Connell on Temple street and that later they had traded them to young Lockridge for a saddle. The boys were locked up.

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