On this day, Sept. 30, in 1961, dozens of disgraced Denver cops were arrested, stripped of their guns and badges and hauled to jail in a paddy wagon for running a massive police burglary ring.

Denver’s burglars in blue cased their jobs from police cruisers, returned at night to steal while lookouts monitored the police radio for alarm calls. After the property owners discovered the break-ins, the same policemen returned to investigate the crime and destroy the evidence. In one case, an insurance company investigator discovered a policeman’s pants near a burglary scene. City detectives confiscated the pants, which disappeared forever.

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