A San Antonio pawnbroker learned the hard way in 1928 that some customers should never be allowed to test the merchandise too thoroughly.
A young man entered H. Katrotkin’s pawn shop and asked to see a revolver. He then insisted on seeing how the bullets fit into the gun’s barrel. Katrotkin obliged and demonstrated the weapon for him.
That was all the customer needed.
Once the revolver was loaded, the supposed buyer turned robber, emptied the pawn shop’s cash drawer, and fled with both the money and the gun. Afterward, Katrotkin reportedly decided that guns and ammunition would be displayed separately from then on.
Calls His Bullets
SAN ANTONIO, Texas. — Guns and bullets will be shown separately henceforth, if at all, in the pawn shop owned by H. Katrotkin here.
A youthful customer recently insisted on seeing how the bullets fit the barrel of a revolver he was going to buy.
After the demonstration Katrotkin’s cash drawer was emptied and the wily thug escaped with his loot and the loaded shooting iron.
Source: The Indianapolis Times. Indianapolis, Ind. April 7, 1928.
