Having grown up in New York City of this era, the sheer ridiculousness of this story is beyond words. Jay Novello and his pal call themselves sidewalk fisherman, but they are just drunken bums. In New York City, these filthy bums were the plague on everyone that lived, worked, or shopped there.
Bums stink like urine and vomit. They were filthy, they had lice jumping off them, and the bums would chase after women demanding money and cursing their heads off if they did not get money. They were nasty and menacing. They would sleep at the entrance to apartment buildings and harass people going to work or school in the mornings. These are the real bums of New York City. As the Clash said "All the animals come out at night. Perverts, bums, junkies, sick, venal (who got shot tonight?) Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets"
Picking coins out of the New York City sidewalk grates has been going on for over a hundred years. Jay Novello claimed that he made as much as $2.50 every day. As recently as 2013, the New York Post had a story called "Grate Catch" about a guy who claims to earn at least $150 a day pulling coins and valuables up from the grates. In this story, Jay Novello is given an eight hour shift that he can work pulling up coins from the grates. The local gang allows Novello to work the night shift only. It is not clear that anyone else is working the day shift. The story is really dumb.
Novello is working day and night, in violation of the gang's rules, because he wants to adopt a little boy. Novello is homeless most of the time, and sleeps in a sleazy bum hostel when he has extra money. So why would anyone let this sleazy bum adopt a little boy?? Creepy is the least of it. According to the story Novello tells the Church Adoption Board, one day he was walking by the orphanage, and all the little kids were playing, except one. His name is Paulie, and he looked sad. So Novello thought "I'll adopt him, he needs a friend."
This sounded even dumber when Novello said it, like he was walking by the Pet Store and saw a lonely dog, and decided to make an impulse buy, an adoption of a little kid. I wonder if Paulie grew up to become the creepy Paulie from The Rocky movie? Was his sister Adrian? Did Jay Novello want to spend Saturdays with her too??
Worse than the fact that nobody just kicked Novello out of the building is that thanks to John McIntire's recommendation, the board agrees to let Novello spend Saturdays with the little kid (hopefully not molesting him).
John McIntire was the top cop on Naked City for 25 really bad episodes. Once John McIntire left this show, it got a lot better. He then went on to destroy the Wagon Train TV series with his laid back, mealy-mouthed character.