“Here is the package I was to deliver to you,” Deppe said.
Mrs. Michelson accepted the package with a nod of thanks and started to close the door. At this moment the agents moved quickly to block the closing of the door.
“We’re Treasury agents, ma’am,” Smith said. “We would like to talk to you about this package.”
While Deppe was being taken to headquarters for questioning, Mrs. Michelson explained that her brother-in-law in Paris had written to her asking that she accept a package from a friend who would deliver it to her apartment. She was to hold it until someone else called for it.
“What is this all about?” she asked. “What is in the package?”
“Diamonds,” Smith said. “Smuggled diamonds. I’m afraid you are in trouble.”
Mrs. Michelson was permitted to call her husband, and when he arrived, the agents explained the situation. The couple readily agreed to cooperate in helping trap the receiver who would call for the gems.
For two days, Agents Abe Eisenberg and Harold Smith remained at the Michelson apartment, waiting for the telephone call from the receiver. But no call came and no one knocked at the door asking for the package.
Late in the third day the telephone rang and Mrs. Michelson answered. The caller asked if she were holding a package for him and she replied that she was. “I’ll be around for it tomorrow morning,” he said.
At 10 A.M. the Michelson doorbell rang. Mrs. Michelson went to the door and admitted a short, plump, well-manicured man dressed in conservative clothes. As he entered the living room he must have sensed the nervousness of Mrs. Michelson because he suddenly turned and started toward the door. But Eisenberg and Smith stepped from a bedroom doorway and halted him. He was Samuel Liberman, a Fifth Avenue dealer in diamonds.