Several city police officers responding to a call to aid members of the Navy Shore Patrol in breaking up a tavern brawl near the U.S. Navy docks here last night got something of a surprise when they arrived on the scene to find the place empty of customers. According to a pair of very nervous waitresses, the Shore Patrol had arrived first and cleared the place out - but not before two of the sailors involved allegedly did a disappearing act. "They just sort of vanished into thin air...right there," reported one of the frightened hostesses, "and I ain't been drinking either!" At that point, according to her account, the Shore Patrol proceeded to hustle everybody out of the place in short order.
A subsequent chat with the local police precinct left no doubts as to the fact that some sort of general brawl had indeed occured in the vicinity of the dockyards at about eleven o'clock last night, but neither confirmation nor denial of the stranger aspects of the story could be immediately obtained. One reported witness succinctly summed up the affair by dismissing it as nothing more than "a lot of hooey from them daffy dames down there," who, he went on to say, were probably just looking for some free publicity.
Damage to the tavern was estimated to be in the vicinity of six hundred dollars.
