Leroy Edwards pays $800 for a 1955 wrecked vehicle from Charley Giddings' salvage yard, but only takes the VIN plate so that it can be transferred to a stolen vehicle of the same make and model. Giddings is part of the scheme, but his assistant, Jimmy Higgins, innocently calls the Highway Patrol after the buyer fails to claim the car for several days, leading to Edwards' arrest. Out on bail, Edwards offers to kill Jimmy and then leave the country if Virgil (the theft ring's leader) will pay him $25,000. Virgil agrees but he then sabotages the vehicle in which Edwards and Jimmy are riding. Edwards is killed in the ensuing accident, but Jimmy manages to provide Dan Mathews and Officer Ellsworth with information that eventually leads them to Charley Giddings and Virgil.
—Sam Spear / Hans Delbruck