Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 21, 2023

Good morning™, all!

So, something shady is happening with Argos? That seems to be what, insurance fraud on top of the phone scamming?

Good morning™, talking live action figures !

I like the changing scenes as they discuss some missing records.

Argos. Could be a CIA front. Like in the Academy-Award winning movie (& real life covert op).

The recipient did not report getting the shipment because it is not known yet whether Argos used UPS or Fed-Ex.

A question just came to mind…how long ago did the recipient place their order? Also did recipient use a credit card or cash app to pay for the gear?

There they go again…Tracy and Sam in a marked police car. That is all the motor pool seems to have when they go out on calls. It might behoove them to put request vehicle weeks in advance. Then on second thought when out of our sight, they might be testing them to find out how much they fish tail when turning a corner.

The place is obviously in Miami run by Jose and Ozzie Canseco. Those two idiot ex-ball players are constantly getting into trouble with the law. That is the only corrupt town run by illegal aliens that would make that mistake !!!Those two morons threatened a landlord with a baseball bat and wouldn’t pay movers who they threatened with a gun to unload a truck without paying !!!

It’s just that they have to get clearance from Head Office before making a report.

Argos is also a huge chain of catalogue stores in the UK. They predate the Internet by many years though they are also online these days, and yes they do ship products.

https://www.argos.co.uk/

I really need to get moving with my story…lizz and Lee are searching the waterfront for the “unknown sniper” Deadeye who is holed up in an abandoned warehouse (or IS it?)… Pat Patton is in charge of crowd control while Sam and tracy are (iirc) headed towards the waterfront…Ike Mendham, a friend of Lotus’ and the Lead EMT is rushing Thunderchild to the ER with what could possibly be a fatal gunshot wound to the chest while Cathal O’Malley…the newly crowned World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion…tends to his family inside the ring.

And just exactly how does Mr. Scratch, Hippo, Wingnut, Mayor Armstrong and her nephew all fit into this?

I’m lost. More than usual.

Yesterday the scammers phones were showing static, and Tracy was sure they’d require fixing.

Today Tracy and Sam pull in front of a brick-and-mortar store that reported a shipment had been stolen (a shipment to them or a shipment from them?). But the recipient (so it appears the shipment was from Argos) did not report the shipment stolen. Of course it isn’t the recipients place to report it stolen, they should whine to Argos, “Where are the 87.3 phones we ordered?” if they were really stolen. Argos really sends a boatload of phones, to a local address, and doesn’t get a signature confirming delivery? Sloppy business practice. So, why would the recipient not complaining to the police be a point to make to Sam?

This, to me, suggests Argos sent the equipment and the recipient claims it hasn’t been received. As someone already asked, when was the order placed? How fast can Argos put together very large order (probably a couple hours if this is their warehouse, but if it’s their warehouse they should have had a truck to make the large delivery)? If it’s been long enough for Argos to know they’ve been stiffed and report it to the police why were the phones still showing static? And, if it’s been long enough for Argos to know they’ve been stiffed and report it to the police, and Tracy to have known through his precognitive powers that the phones were stolen by the scammer, why start at Argos – just go to the address where they were shipped?

And, of course, it is Tracy’s precognitive powers that tell him the scammers are local. Scammers work across state, and national boundaries. Why would any normal police department assume they’re in their city to start with?

Isn’t interstate theft a Federal matter?

Not bad . Dick and Sam talking business. Relates to the story and a serious tone . Not bad .

DMITRIO—-

You just undid my Acres O’Riley thing in WIKI/FANDOM.

NOBODY is Nine Feet Tall—-that’s taller than the tallest person who ever lived!!

And she first appeared in 1948,not 1947

Yesterday in NEW YORK CITY—-Explosion in E-Bike repair shop in Lower Manhattan kills 4, 2 more critical.

Lithium batteries again blamed.NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Editorial today—

“The Lithium—Ion Battery Scourge”Even if it IS only a comic strip,see if you can wean Diet Smith off Lithium as a main power source,

He’d be safer using pure radium.

1-DT: That left front tire feels low to my very sensitive right buttcheek. And my left one suggests the car is pulling to the left. Pull in to that Argos Tire Store up ahead. SAM: Roger that. I’ve learned never to argue with your smart azz.

2-DT: DON’T PARK HERE STUPID! Park in front of the service doors!

3-DT: We’ll get those issues fixed and then we’ll go…wait. Where were we going?

SAM: The deli? Yeah. Pretty sure it was the deli…

So Shelley’s art still looking good…………

The phone scamming operation must not be very successful, if the scammers have to steal the phone equipment that keeps it going.

Okay,Sam and Dick walk into Argos and three people recognize them and scream—“Oh,God,I confess! How did I ever get talked into this!?!”

Remmeber “The Computer Killer” Collins story where The Digits panicked at the sight of him and came up with a cover story they didn’t need in the first place?

MOVIE QUOTE—

“It’s where hormone-driven teenagers come to fool around. So it’s likely we’re about to see someone get killed”—-SCARY MOVIE—-2000

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen – which plotline is this following?

Artwork today is really fine!

Argos is new, and I don’t quite see how Tracy tied them into some static-y wiretap info, despite what what he says about large purchases from local distributors (of…what? Why telecom equipment, when so very many things can cause static besides that? E.g., weather; interference from some other source; faulty carrier lines; etc.).

Withal, I have hope that Wichita1.0’s fill-in stint will help straighten out a plot that has been wandering hither and yon….

https://www.facebook.com/reel/940207437428369?s=yWDuG2&fs=e&mibextid=Nif5oz