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An article from the Dec. 4, 1940, edition of The Times newspaper outlined a "victimless crime" that netted more than $10,500 (in today's dollar value) for one 25-year-old San Mateo County resident.
"A flood of 34 bad checks passed in five San Mateo County communities, which netted him more than $500, was confessed today by Ernest Siglar…a former Burlingame resident and recently a furniture salesman here (in Redwood City).
"The deputy prosecutor said it was the greatest number of worthless checks ever passed by one man in this county that he could recall.
"Siglar also admitted a series of embezzlements from his former employer, the Ryan Furniture Company of Redwood City.
"Siglar passed checks on 27 business establishments in Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, Burlingame and South San Francisco during a three-week period last August and September. Some of the checks were fictitious, some were forged, and others were written without bank funds.
"The alleged embezzlements from the furniture company occurred about the same time. While working as a salesman, Siglar made collections and failed to turn them in to his employer. Records show he owes the company some $175 ($3,700 today), including a debt on his personal account. In the Belmont case, Siglar is alleged to have collected $50 ($1,600) from a prospective customer for furniture and then failed to deliver the articles.
"Siglar, who is married and has one child, was working as a house painter when Redwood City officers arrested him at Los Gatos. Police had been looking for him for several months. He admitted that he is on five years' probation from the Los Angles courts for a check passing offense and that he is now wanted in San Francisco on a bad check charge.
"The Siglar family formerly resided on Carmelita Avenue in Burlingame. Siglar said he had been living recently in Mountain View."
In early January of the following year, The Redwood City Tribune reported that Siglar had been found guilty and sentenced to only six months in jail. This relatively lenient sentence was because, according to The Tribune, "The specific charges against him involved three checks totaling only $30 ($635), or as Superior Judge A. R. Cotton termed it, 'petty larceny'." Cotton blamed merchants for many of Sigler's crimes, saying that they accept a check to avoid missing out on a sale "and then expect the courts to act as a collection agency for them."
