This was a fascinating episode with a fascinating premise: steal a valuable machine and hold it for ransom. In this case, the machine is a computer - a computer that cost $100,000 to build and will "revolutionize electronics" (and probably didn't have 1% of the capability of a $500 computer today). One crook asks the other "Why would they pay a ransom that is as much as the computer is worth?" The answer is that it would take them a year to build another computer and any business advantage of having a computer would be gone. So the crooks do steal the computer (a semitrailer is needed to transport it) and the Highway Patrol is after them. This show is also interesting in depicting what may have been a very early use of helicopters in following criminals. At the end of this episode, Crawford starts conveying his famous pithy words of advice or observation. In this one he ends with: "It isn't the car that kills, it's the driver." Hmmm.
Review of Machine-Napping
