A Good Officer But he is likely to Lose All His Laurels Nov. 13, 1899 [The Outlook] . . . outhern California, Monday Evening, November 13, 1899
Constable Pritchard has made an excellent record since he became an officer. His capture of an eight months fugitive from justice, and his trip to Anacapa Island after two thieves who are now lingering in jail, are of recent occurrence and fresh in the public mind.
But his laurels are in danger, for he has finally met his Waterloo as it were, in the shape of a little weather-beaten woman of South Santa Monica. A warrant for her arrest was put in Pritchard's hands last Wednesday. He has camped on her trail every day since, but has not even a glimpse of her, although she has lived at her own house and done her chores herself all the time. Besides himself, he has three confederates on the South Side assisting him, but so far she has eluded them all, although she makes daily visits to her attorney two miles away. He has been there before breakfast, and has camped under her peach tree in her back yard for hours at a time, but all to his own chagrin and defeat.
He says it is easier to find fellows among the Islands of the Pacific than to catch this wizened will o' the wisp in his own bailiwick.