Teen-age Maine girl arrested in tax refund check thefts

Aumuller, Bernie · April 21, 1949

Lucille O'Brien, 19, of Camden, Me., is pictured leaving police headquarters after her arrest and questioning in the theft of five hundred tax refund checks totaling $50,000 which she is charged with cashing with fake Social Security cards. Also under arrest in the case are Albert Allen, 27, who is reportedly a fugitive from his Army post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and David Smith, 38, of New York City. Postal inspectors charged that during the last two years, Miss O'Brien and Allen have been lifting the government checks from mail boxes which they opened with a master key. Inspectors caught the girl as she was about to cash a check in a New York department store. Her story led to the arrest of the others in a raid on Smith's apartment.