Ward and June are going to be away for the evening, and so is Wally. Previously Ward and June have said Beaver is old enough to stay home alone without a babysitter, so they feel somewhat obligated to give Beaver a try on his own. Plus Gilbert is coming over. What could go wrong?
Beaver and Gilbert sit down to a night of watching gangster movies. But it does take its toll, even on kids as old as them. Uknown to them, Wally has told Lumpy and Bill to come to his house and they'll drive over to a masquerade party together. As luck would have it, Lumpy and Bill are dressed as gangsters, and Lumpy even has on a grotesque looking mask. They are in an unfamiliar car, so Beaver doesn't recognize it. And they are just parked there, doing nothing. This begins to scare Gilbert and Beaver, thinking that maybe these are hoodlums who have come to the wrong house and are going to "rub them out" by mistake. They call the police - the right thing to do if you are scared of strangers parked in front of your house. And since neither Bill nor Lumpy have any ID on them and are illegally parked, the police haul them into the station. This does cause problems for Ward with his colleague and Lumpy's dad, Fred Rutherford.
In 1962, Beaver is somewhat chastised for overreacting. Today, the first thing you do with a kid that's staying home alone is to go over what to do in case of menacing strangers who show up and don't belong. If they called the police and did not open the door to investigate themselves they'd generally get a pat on the back.
Beaver and Gilbert sit down to a night of watching gangster movies. But it does take its toll, even on kids as old as them. Uknown to them, Wally has told Lumpy and Bill to come to his house and they'll drive over to a masquerade party together. As luck would have it, Lumpy and Bill are dressed as gangsters, and Lumpy even has on a grotesque looking mask. They are in an unfamiliar car, so Beaver doesn't recognize it. And they are just parked there, doing nothing. This begins to scare Gilbert and Beaver, thinking that maybe these are hoodlums who have come to the wrong house and are going to "rub them out" by mistake. They call the police - the right thing to do if you are scared of strangers parked in front of your house. And since neither Bill nor Lumpy have any ID on them and are illegally parked, the police haul them into the station. This does cause problems for Ward with his colleague and Lumpy's dad, Fred Rutherford.
In 1962, Beaver is somewhat chastised for overreacting. Today, the first thing you do with a kid that's staying home alone is to go over what to do in case of menacing strangers who show up and don't belong. If they called the police and did not open the door to investigate themselves they'd generally get a pat on the back.