The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-07-20
A Riyx ROBBERY AND TIE POLICE.

An Alleged Robbery of a BaniS-The Professed
Ignorance of the Police In Relation to the
Transaction-A Mysterious silence Regards
Ing tho Operation-Only Eighty Thousand
Dollars Reported Missing.
Bank, street and highway robberes at present are
very frequent occurrences. Nearly every day the
desperate operations Of a reckless class OF criminals
are recorded, but so used to these announcements
nave the public become that little or no
interest Is manifested. What attracts people,
however, with more surprise than the bare publ
cation OF these thieving operations is the fact that
comparatively few Of the robbers are ever caught.
When the extraordinary vigilance OF the police IL
taken into consideration this state OF afars seeras
peculiarly strange For one year have the cap
tains OF many OF the precincts been drilling their
men In the detective limo OF business. Sundays are
the appointed days when number of men are Sc
lected to sneak round In citizens clothes and en-
ploy their senses of seeing, hearing, smelling
and tasting to ascertain II any liquor dealer has
In the slightest degree infringed upon the
slightest provision of the Excise law. This course Is
police magnates at headquarters. As consequence
when this practice OF spying sneaking, or whatever
other term may be applied to the course adopted, 10
made perfect by the present mode OF schooling, the
public may have class Of detectives In the police
department that will be able to arrest small pro-
portion least of the perpetrators OF the robberes
that 80 frequently transpireunless indeed that the
detective has good reason for not making sucn
capture.
For some time 1t has been rumored that during the
fourth and fifth days or the present month the lm-
pOrters and Traders Bank was robbed OF about
$4,000 On the Sd the clerks departed from the es-
adjustment leaving the property, they thought,
securely locked up In the safe. The stolen property
consisted OF number Of bonds ana securities
amounting to the value stated These placed
in the safe about six O'Clock by the second teller and
after being placed there he retired to wash his hands
and again returned to see that everything was ali
safe. Satisfying himself on that point he left the
htftlt foR ha nj nm
Previous however, to his closing the safe the draw
ers in which the money was put away were locked
with the different KEYS and those keys given as was
customary, to separate parties. The office was never
tween ten and eleven O'Clock the night Of the 3D.
The surprise OF the attaches OF the bank on the fol
lowing Monday, when the bank was opened and the
safe examined to find that the safe had been opened
and bonds and greenbacks amounting to about
$4,000 distracted can be imagined. or course q
robbery of the magnitude reported could not well
he kept secret but the police professed
ignorance about the transaction 1t was at
first supposed to be canard The idea OF a bank
robbery taking place without knowledge of the
police 1t was thought was preposterous: 1t Is now
that OF the clerks let the cat out OF the bag
by telling somebody about the little operation. 1t
was only $4,000 500, 900 and the bank was rich.
These were the floating rumOrs and on these rum0rs
the story of the robbery IL based and there Is every
reason to believe there considerable truth in the
rance OF the police. 1t is further stated
that one OF the bank officials called at the
detectice and man was arrested on suspicion. He
was brought to headquarters An examination, 1t Is
presumed was made, in whose presence Is not
| known, still the police know nothing about the rob
berry. II this is really the case, and the police know
nothing about the robbery, they assert it is time
their vigilance, q where vigilance nee, Is required,
possess the Information and hold back for the pur
pose OF individual members making capital OF It, 1t
Is equally necessary that the public should uHdcr-
stand how things managed i'll this iucorrupliDle
and vigilant department.