Officer closes bar in one-man raid near here

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Thursday, February 24, 1931.

A one man raid of a residence near the Ypsilanti Armory, Monday night, is the opening gun in a campaign to keep Washtenaw county dry, Sheriff Jacob Andres stated this morning.

One of the deputies stepped into the residence Monday night to “look things over’ and decided to conduct the raid single handed. He found the residence, a stucco house contained a bar with beer on tap, and an assortment of whiskey and wine. The stock of gin, he was told, had been depleted. As he entered, the bar tender, Gordon Parrington, R F. D. 1 had just placed a whiskey serving on the counter and informed a customer, “That’s good”. “I’ll take it then,” the deputy said and proceeded with the raid.

Contrivance for the serving of beer, well iced, was made of a garbage can in which the ice was packed around a system of coils. A faucet had been attached to one side of the can and a pressure gauge, air compression chamber and rubber tubing completed the outfit. There was no brass rail the deputy says, but there was an iron one, a bar and even an old spittoon.

He made the bar tender and the door keeper, Francis Guyer, 23, R. F. D. 1, empty out the beer on the premises and carry the apparatus to the county jail. Both are held on charges of possession.

“I was so darned anxious to let you in!” the door tender regretfully remarked, indicating to the deputy the men expected there was to be active trade.

The house is an eight room building of recent construction.

Numerous complaints had been received of the place Sheriff Andres says.

During the last week an intensive campaign has been made in Wayne county to drive out bootleggers and they are trying to “muscle” into Washtenaw county, the sheriff explains.