Briefs

> Business had been rippingly good, so the proprietor of P.F.F. Inc., a front for a fencing operation in Washington, D.C., decided to throw a party for customers to celebrate five months of successful traffic in stolen goods. But to the dismay of the purse snatchers, car thieves and assorted other heist artists who showed up for the blast, P.F.F. Inc. turned out to stand for Police-FBI Fencing Incognito, the largest and most successful undercover undertaking in the city's history. Last week when the party was over, 126 people had been arrested, among them an assistant federal prosecutor accused of taking bribes to protect the fences. During the five months, undercover police had paid $67,000 for $2.4 million worth of stolen goods; the take included cars, stereos, TV sets, firearms, 140 typewriters, a bundle of Government checks worth $1.2 million, 1,500 credit cards, a truckload of 300 hijacked air hockey games and a heart-lung resuscitator. The police and feds had video-taped every transaction, and even got the unsuspecting sellers to show drivers' licenses or other identification. ("We told them we had to be sure who we were dealing with," said one officer.) The imaginative ploy, which was similar to one in New York City a year ago, paid an added dividend: many of the customers tried to impress the supposedly Mafia-connected fences with tales of crimes they had got away with. Their boasts--plus the loot--have led to 10,000 investigations including murder, bank robbery, hijacking and mail theft.

> When the three young men returned to their Brooklyn apartment after a night of drinking in 1973, an argument ensued over when Joseph Bush would pay his share of the rent. Bush pulled a .38-cal. revolver and shot Michael Lawrence Geller three times in the chest. Bush then allegedly threatened Melvin Dlugash, who Bush feared would be a witness unless he, too, were involved in the crime. So Dlugash fired five shots into Geller's head from his own .25-cal. pistol. Bush drew five to ten years after pleading guilty to manslaughter, but Dlugash went to trial and got up to life. Last week an appeals court decided that Dlugash should go free because the prosecution had not proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Geller was still alive when Dlugash fired his own potentially fatal bullets.

> New Jersey Receptionist Marlene Blum was not amused. Seven fellow employees at North Jersey Lithographers had hired one of those professional pie-throwing agencies to hit Mrs. Blum with one of their confections last May. Mrs. Blum hit back, pressing charges against the two pie pitchers, who pleaded guilty to assault and were fined $50 each. The pie-galled Mrs. Blum also brought a civil suit claiming she suffered a burning sensation in her eyes, had to quit her job and became so nervous she had to see a psychiatrist. Now the seven jokesters have agreed to pay her $5,000, which presumably gives her reason at last to lick her lips.

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