Really? This is a crazy headline from the Washington Post, published on March 1st, 1972. The city was a little rough around the edges then, but a policeman performing a holdup?

A metropolitan policeman was arrested last night and charged with the armed robbery last Friday of a practical nurse employed at the George Washington University Hospital, police said.

Investigators said that Officer Willis T. Poole, 25, of Suitland, voluntarily appeared at seventh district headquarters about 10 p.m., apparently after learning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

He was charged in connection with an incident last Friday afternoon when, according to police accounts, Lucile Bradford, 50, was walking near her home in the 2100 block of 31st Street SE. A man armed with a gun approached her and order her to “Give me all your things and keep walking.”

The man took Mrs. Bradford’s brown pocketbook, containing a small amount of cash, a paper bag with three dresses inside, then fled.

Police spokesmen last night refused to say what evidence led them to charge Poole.

Poole is a four-year veteran of the force who has been assigned to scout car duty with the seventh district.

He had been placed on administrative leave with pay Monday while police investigated the case.

After surrendering last night at the headquarters at 2301 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Se. Poole was taken to the central cellblock where he was being held in lieu of a $5,000 bond. He was scheduled for arraignment today by a U.S. magistrate.