What happens
Inspector Allen, a bumbling detective running the Tiptoe Detective Agency, takes on a string of odd cases. Clients arrive with a stolen car missing a spare tire, a vanished vegetable-store truck and then a series of thefts of spinach. Allen uses trained ants to trace a trail of sand, and his investigation leads him toward a riverbank where a group of boys is involved. Along the way he handles a dentist's complaint, a squabble over a pair of short pants and a visit from a family whose father has taken a job as a window dresser. The program is a comedy sketch in the Fred Allen series, which aired on CBS and NBC. The story is told through rapid exchanges, with Fred Allen starring alongside Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious.
The Tiptoe Detective Agency office in an American city, plus a riverbank and a vegetable store where spinach has gone missing.
Characters: Inspector Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Jerry the Rat, Dr. Pickhard, Charlie Chan, Mr. McDonald
Listen for: Inspector Allen's ant trail to the riverbank, where the spinach is recovered.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.