by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are summoned to the office of a young lawyer, where an unknown vandal has trashed the place and sprayed the walls with green paint. While the detectives check out the neighborhood trash receptacles for empty paint cans, the vandal strikes again, setting fire to some palm trees. Ultimately the perpetrator is revealed to be a teenage boy (Arnold Waterman) with a laundry list of profound emotional problems--and when the case comes to juvenile court, the judge places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the boy's insensitive parents. This episode is based on the Dragnet) radio broadcast of August 17, 1950.
