The Rural Voice, 1978-04, Page 35sufficient length to let Kelly know that the gathering didn't really
care one way or the other what he had to say, he said. "Okay
Kelly, let's have it before you burst!"
And Kelly did look like he might be about to burst. His face
was red and puffed up with the effort of trying to appear calm
and rather superior to the rest of the group.
"Waal" he drawled, "i just got a buzz on the radio from the
Mounties saying some counterfeiters they thought they had
rounded up in London got away and are headed this way. They
stole a car just north of there. "Parently they're getting
desperate 'cause they held up a gas station to get enough gas."
The news was slow to take effect like a hotfoot applied to a
sleeping victim, but when it finally got through to the
half -listening audience the result was electrifying. Questions
began flying. How did they know they were coming this way?
Were they armed? And finally, the question that struck terror in
the hearts of all: what size of counterfeit bills were they passing?
For the small town businessman whose daily profit could be
counted in dollar bills. the idea of being stuck with a bad twenty
or fifty dollar bill was almost as bad as having fire burn down the
whole store and everything in it -worse. because the store carried
insurance. But Kelly couldn't answer their questions,
particularly the one they were most interested in.
The coffee break ended a little earlier than usual that day as
the shopkeepers rushed back to their stores to spread the word to
their staff to be on the lookout for suspicious -looking men paying
for things with large bills. The staff told the customers and the
customers rushed home to tell their neighbours.
About noon the first discreetly painted R.C.M.P. car had
entered the town and was parked beside Kelly's at the town hall.
By this time the news had already spread in bulletin form
through the town grapevine so that virtually everyone knew who
the plain -clothed Mountie was before he stepped out of the car.
He was something of a celebrity for in rural Ontario where the
Ontario Provincial Police held sway. Mounties appeared seldom
and only in case of great import. So the sight of a real live
Mountie gave the stamp of authority to all Kelly had said.
By one. the town was swarming with more police than it knew
existed. The Mounties and OPP had decided to lay their trap
here and planned road blocks on all the major .roads into the
town. Evidence seemed to prove it certain the fugitives would
have to pass through the town.
During the early part of the hot afternoon the excitment picked
up the usually sleepy atmosphere. Kelly at his office had
seventeen calls reporting sightings of the desperadoes. sixteen
from little old ladies. one from the public school principal. Doors
'.ere locked and chairs were propped up against them in several
parts of tov. n. The men were reported to have been seen in a red
cin %ertible. green hardtop. yellow sports car and blue
statioIl .agon. Three unsuspecting tourists were hustled down to
the police station by store owners when they tried to pay items
ranging from a head of lettuce to a radiator cap for a car with a
twenty dollar bill.
In all the excitment no one noticed when the old battered
pick-up pulled up a backstreet from the southern edge of town.
No one noticed either when the truck stopped near the gate of the
Lin. grounds and a man got out and hid a little brown package
under a stone near the culvert that carried the little riverlet
under the road. No one noticed when he got back in the truck
and drove down another backstreet and disappeared to the
north.
It was about five -thirty that all the cars from the assorted
police departments headed toward the - north, their sirens
%✓ailing. their tires throwing clouds of dust and bits of gravel into
the air as they took off.
The story drifted back into town by seven. Joe Thompson. the
policeman in the village five miles north of Homestead had seen
Teddie Smith's battered blue pick-up driving through town and
remembered that he wanted to have the plumber look at his hot
water heater so he jumped into his car and drove after the truck,
over took it and made it pull over to the side of the road. Only
when he got out did he realize that it wasn't Teddie the plumber,
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THE RURAL VOiCE/APRIL 1978. PG. 35.
7