Bob Frank

Bob Frank

Bob Frank recalls the theft and looting of his business, a pawnshop on Twelfth Street.

Detroit Historical Society

08/03/2015

Detroit Historical Society, Detroit, MI

Text

en-US

12th Street business district, Detroit, MI

We were celebrating my next day birthday on Saturday. Mrs. Frank and I went home late in the evening and about 5:30 AM I received a call from ADT that there was a civil disturbance on 12th Street and they could not respond to the alarm nor would the police respond. I turned to my wife and said, “I think we are out of business”. I was right. We operated a very large pawnshop called the US Loan Office. Our stock included hundreds of rifles and shotguns (all gone). We had two large jewelry safes. One was rolled out of the building and pushed down the street with a car. The other, larger one was finally opened after a long time and, according to the owner of a bar in the building, the person that got it open was assaulted and knocked unconscious while others cleaned out the safe. The building had a very large rotating sign that the National Guard shot out because the light outlined them. The building, about 12,000 square feet, was totally emptied. We later went to court when a few of the weapons turned up and all the defendants were more or less known to me and my partner. We never re-opened.

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Bob Frank

12th street, pawn shop, looting, Michigan National Guard