In the spring of 1955 while I was hanging out at the only Fredonia checking station, talking to Joe Billingsley who had just been transferred from Gripe, the phone rang. The Flagstaff patrol officer reported that we were to be on the look out for a car of which they gave an accurate description. A couple had been headed North from Flagstaff on Highway 89 and had stopped and gave a ride to a young man hitchhiking. They had proceeded North a short distance when the hitchhiker pulled a pistol from his bag and ordered the driver to pull over. It was about 30 miles from Flagstaff. He ordered the couple out of the car and drove off continuing North. The couple flagged down a south bound car and returned to Flagstaff and reported the incident to the police.
Joe and I moved our signs around so any North bound car would have to pull into the checking station. We only stopped south bound cars for agriculture and license inspections ordinarily. We watched each car going north very carefully but after about 2 hours we hadn't seen the stolen car. Deputy Sheriff Slim and I decided to go check the two small motels in Fredonia. At the Baker Motel on the south edge of town we found a car parked in front of one of the units that fit the description. We asked Jim Baker, the proprietor, about who checked into a number three unit. He said it was a single young man.
Slim went around to the back of the unit and I knocked on the front door. A young man came to the door and I placed him under arrest putting handcuffs on him The gun was on the dresser.
We placed him in our little jail and reported to Flagstaff by phone that we had a culprit. The next day Slim and I took the prisoner to back to Flagstaff and placed him in the Coconino County Jail.
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