Upon arrival Ludwig went to a boarding house located in Ridgewood, Queens, his operations being paid through the German consulate in New York. He set himself up as a leather-goods salesman and proceeded to recruit agents and couriers from various German-American Bund groups in the New York/Brooklyn area in preparation for his espionage activity: he recruited six men and two women for this purpose, several of whom had little practical experience in espionage. One of the two women was Lucy Boehmler, a pretty 18-year-old high school graduate from Maspeth, Queens, who joined up because she thought it might be fun.