March 13-Wilkes-Barre police confiscated $ 50,000 worth of eight barrels of alcohol from delivery trucks on North Washington and Pennsylvania Avenue on February 15, 1922.
Within hours of the delivery trucks and barrels being stored at the city police station, they went missing.
What followed was considered “concealment” by the public. Many believed that city officials, including law enforcement agencies, brought back some of the alcohol.
The confiscation took place early in the Volstead Act, known as Prohibition. This is a federal law that prohibits the drinking of beverages with an alcohol content of more than 0.5%.
Banned agents have been hired to seek out and destroy alcohol.
In early 1922, several barrels labeled “olive oil” were found to be filled with alcohol in a warehouse in Pittston.
When police confiscated eight barrels of alcohol from the delivery truck, they were taken to the city police station.
“Alcohol disappeared after 4 o’clock yesterday morning. According to their statement, there were no reports of seizures to Mayor Daniel L. Hart or Police Chief Michael Brown,” Wilkes-Barre records February 16, 1922. Reported on the day. ..
I had a question. No one knew anything.
“When asked about the reported alcohol seizures from Mayor Hart through the ranks to the patrols, everyone on duty last night said something about this effect: Alcohol? Last night there was no alcohol in this place. As I know, nothing has been confiscated so far, “the record reported.
Police reports and inventory lists were created for seizures.
Police Sergeant Walter Thomas has filed a report showing that an eight-barrel alcohol-laden delivery truck was parked at police headquarters. After Thomas finished his duties, the barrel of alcohol disappeared. So was Thomas’s report.
“When called early this morning, Mayor Hart said he was not willing to know anything about alcohol attacks and did not order the release of alcohol,” the record reported.
Police Chief Brown conducted an internal investigation. Brown submitted the findings to Mayor Hart on February 19.
Hart obscured Brown’s findings and continued until a newspaper reporter forced him to release him.
Police officers who confiscated delivery trucks and barrels of alcohol said it had happened on North Washington Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, but Brown’s report said the seizures actually happened across city boundaries. It’s far beyond the boundaries of the city.
“The report clearly shows who confiscated the truck, where it was confiscated, how it was released, and why, but it is ambiguous as to who ordered the release,” Brown said. The record of the report to the mayor of was reported on March 22, 1922. heart.
According to Brown’s investigation records, police chiefs alleged that patrols had seized delivery trucks at Parsons’ George Avenue.
The delivery truck was full of furniture and empty barrels, and the truck was confiscated across the city boundaries and was released with the cargo, Brown said.