Introduction
Dave’s Grill, at 2360 Broadway, at the corner of Broadway and Gordon Terrace, and the Hi Step Hotel, at 2366 Broadway, were two bars located opposite the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, in the Terraces section of Camden, along Broadway between the Bulson Street “hump” and Morgan Boulevard. In 1947 there were also three restaurants in this section, serving the shipyard workers and the immediate neighborhood.
2360 Broadway was a grocery in 1929, operated by a Jacob Lipkin. By June of 1933, David Plasky, who had previously operated an automobile battery business at 324 North 7th Street and lived at 1512 Bradley Avenue in Parkside, acquired the property, with the intent of opening a bar. When Prohibition was repealed in June of 1933, David Plasky obtained a beer license.
Dave’s Grill survived into the 1960s. David Plasky later made his home at 2613 Baird Boulevard.
2 Thugs Abduct, Rob Broadway Cafe Operator
Camden Courier-Post —
A Broadway cafe owner was abducted in his automobile after closing his place of business early today, by two bandits who robbed him of $200 after forcing him out of the car on Burma road near Mt. Ephraim avenue.
David Plasky, 46, operator of Dave’s Grill, 2360 Broadway, told Detective Benjamin Simon he closed his establishment about 12:40 a.m. and as he was about to enter his car parked on Gordon terrace east of Broadway he was accosted by two young thugs wearing red handkerchiefs over their faces.
Plasky said one of the thugs placed a hard object against his stomach and said: “Do as you are told and you won’t get hurt.”
Plasky said the bandits then demanded his car keys and one ordered him into the rear seat and sat beside him while the other slid into the driver’s seat. The car was driven east on Gordon terrace to the railroad, south to Morgan boulevard and east to Burma road, Plasky said. About three city blocks from Mt. Ephraim avenue, Plasky said, the thugs halted the car and he was ordered to get out and “hand over your money.”
Plasky said he gave the men $200 in cash and offered two checks he was carrying. The victim said the bandits refused the checks and after instructing him to “start walking back” got back into the car remarking, “you will find the car at the end of the road.”
Plasky said instead of retracing the route the bandits had taken, he walked to the Camden Forge Co. plant at the end of Burma road and Mt. Ephraim avenue. He told a plant guard of the holdup and police were summoned.
About 30 minutes later, police recovered Plasky’s car at Mt. Ephraim avenue and Olympia road, less than a mile from the point where Plasky was forced out of the car.
Plasky, who resides at 2613 Baird avenue, told Simon the two thugs were about 25 years of age and were wearing khaki jackets.