The officer peers into the envelope and sees five-thousand in brand new, crisp hundred dollar bills. "How long do you boys need?" We lucked out; thank God this guy is a veteran and not some idealistic rookie.

"Half hour will do it Jimmy."

"In that case Connor, I’ll see that you are not disturbed." He backs out of the alley and parks his car; blocking the alley. Kills his lights and sits there. This Philly police officer is now on our payroll as a sentry. Un-fucking-believable.

Connor walked back to the door, gave me this huge grin and finished picking the lock. Once inside he bypassed the alarm. Note: This is not the same as disabling the alarm. By doing the former he is tricking the system into thinking that nothing has occurred. Doing the latter would probably send a silent signal to some monitoring company or even the police department.

The two Rotties are Zena and Zeus; Nathan's dogs. I point at the rear stairs and tell them, "Search." Up they go. This is risky on my part. If they discover someone upstairs, unarmed, they'll simply detain them. However, it they discover someone holding a gun, well, that's a different matter. The possible outcomes are: the dogs may disarm them; injure them slightly; injure severely or even kill them. Depends on how they perceive the threat. The truth is I really don't care. As much as harming another human being disturbs me, it's much better than us being shot.

"What now?" TJ asks.

"First set up the screen." Burger's safe is set up behind the counter at the front of the store. That means anyone passing the front window would observe us breaking into the safe. TJ stopped at Hocus Pocus, a magic supply shop, on S. 4th between Lombard and South Streets. There he purchased a black back-drop with a light frame for quick assembly and easy breakdown. An impromptu stage curtain for magicians and other performers.