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Here are more tales of the racetrack, or horses of a different color. November 14: So Somebody Got Even The people at Aqueduct gossiped yesterday about the three men who hijacked $1,400,000 of racetrack money from a Wells Fargo armed truck Wednesday. A concession man said, "It would be funny if they got caught and said they robbed the truck because they had lost all their money at the track and wanted it back."
A track official said,"They didn't take any change. They are true horseplayers. I have no doubt they'll be betting the money back." A tout said, "I'll bet those guards wouldn't have stopped for lunch if it was their own money." A salami king said, "It serves these guards right. They stopped to eat at an ordinary delicatessen. It wasn't a kosher deli. They picked the wrong place to stop." A repairman said, "They ought to keep a close eye on the $100 window today for new customers." A publicity man said, "They couldn't beat the horses so they beat the track." At the Wells Fargo press conference announcng a $125,000 reward there were "Jesse James Wanted" posters. A reporter said, "I wonder if Wells Fargo called press conferences after Jesse James'stickups."
How did the customers feel about the bandits who pulled off the second largest robbery in American history? Were they aghast? Or did they have secret admiration for the daring and efficiency of the highwaymen? Did they want them to be caught? An instant, unscientific Left Field survey was made at Aqueduct; these were some of the feelings elicited: T.S., milk truck driver: "I say more power to them.I don't want them to get caught because they took their shot and pulled it off. And they went for the big money. If you are gonna take your shot, then you should go for the big money." H.J., male haiardresser: "I think it was terrible. I hope they get caught because they are just a bunch of crooks." I.E., porter: "All I can say is I wish it were me." S.R., bartender: "They were great. They did the job clean and they got the package and nobody got hurt. Tough on the insurance company." I.L, retired button-hole maker: "They are foolish. I want to see them get caught because if they rob, they can kill. Money and women make you kill in this world." S.O., actor: "I say, 'As you sow, so shall you reap.' They rob everybody here at the racetrack, so why shouldn't somebody come along and rob them?" C.K., a student: "I can't help but have some secret admiration for them. They are among the last great individualists of this world. People make a big fuss about baseball heroes and astronauts, but these people are almost programmed into stardom.The robbers were lonely men going against the tide, in need of daring and imagination and a magnificent capacity to tread where many men would like to, but few men have the courage to try. In view of that, I think their accomplishment is worth the discomfort that some faceless insurance company suffered." A.H., houswife: "It was horrible, outrageous. It was against the law. I want them to get caught." S.O., retired accountant: "They did something that's not right. They should be caught and punished." E.L., horse player: "I hope they get away with it because they pulled off a great job and nobody got hurt. I'm only sorry that the insurance company will get hit and not the state. The state robs the bettors by taking a 17-per cent cut of our money. The next time thse robbers ought to steal the money from the grounds of the track itself so the state and Nelson Rockefeller will be affected." F.M., lady cashier: "I laughed when I first heard about it because I had been at the track over the weekend so I figured they got my own money. It's serious though. And I hope they get caught because I don't believe in stealing. I don't steal, why should anybody else?" O.E., housewife: "I know I shouldn't say this, but I don't want them to get caught. Because they didn't hurt anybody and they didn't intend to. They didn't steal from the people, they stole from millionaires. I'm only sorry I wasn't in with them." R.S., inveterate horse player: "I'm against them because it's as if they picked my pocket. You know how much money I lost there the past few days?Well, I won't tell you, because my wife will read it in thepaper." Somehow, it all conjures up the scene in the movie in which Clyde introduces Bonnie and himself to a farmer and wife who were dispossessed from their land. He says, "This is Bonnie Parker and I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks."
Note the use of initials instead of full names. That's because horse players generally are reluctant to give their names. They say they don't want their boss or their wife to know they are out at the track. Perhaps. I generally didn't like to do man-in-the-street interviews because people often were reluctant to be approached or their answers so often were inane. In this case people seemed to get a vicarious thrill out of considering the robbery caper. The most ambitious exercise I ever undertook that involved talking to ordinary citizens was the pursuit of two dollars at the racetrack. It was my own version of the movie "Tails of Manhattan" which traced the travels of a pair of evening wear tails to various New Yorkers. I made a two-dollar bet and asked the clerk to nod to me when he handed my two dollars out to another bettor. I then chronicled those two dollar bills as they made their way from bettor to bettor throughout the race track. I recorded the choices of the people who trafficked in those two dollars, and how their horses made out. I tried to get a little biography of each person. I was met mostly with suspicion, sometimes with amusement. At the seventh race the lady who had my two dollars was so terrified of me when I tried to explain my mission, she rushed off. That was the end of my pursuit of the two dollars. The stolen sum of $1,400,000 is pretty impressive. To get an idea of just how much money that was, track head Gerry McKeon allowed me to visit the mutuel department's money room where they stacked a pile of a million dollars in bills for me. It didn't take up much of a table; the figure sounds like much more than it looks. I daresay that a part of me shared the feeling of admiration for the individuality of the robbers that was expressed above by C.K., the student.
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Veeck's Touch Transforms a Racetrack 
