Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-04-12
RURGLARYAND ROBBERY
Tive Of the Miscreants Caught
In the act Of RObbing Sax
Clothing store.
and Safely Housed In Jail.

Until within the last two or three
months, this city has been infested
with gang of thieves, who by some
method, best known 10 themselves,
succeeded in keeping out of the
clutches of the law to a great extent
and practiced their profession with a
greater or less degree of success.
Several have been caught by the
officers, and were generally pretty
severely handled by the authorities.
Some of them are now serving out
sentences in the pcnitentiary. and it
was supposed by citizens generally
that the worst class had all left the
city.
Saturday evening last, party Of
four persons made their appearance
here, and by some means attracted
the attention of the Marshals, who
since that time have kept watchful
eye over the party. The thieves We're
in the habit of prowling around the
city at night, and had a regular camp
somewhere down along the e. b. 4
G., railroad near the city, to which
they would resort when ii seemed to
suit their convenience best. Yester-
day two of the party were missing.
which aroused the suspicious of
Marshal Davis, and the other two
from their suspicious conduct, led him
to believe that an attempt would be
made last night to rob Sax clothing
store. Davis informed Jacob Sax of
his suspicious, and asked him to keep
look out for the thieves, and not
make any noise to disturb them as he
would keep All eye on them himself.
Between l and 2 O'Clock in the night,
they made their appearance at the
rear of the store, and with small
fiat file pricd open the window shut
tiers. They broke out a glass, one of
the party entered the room, opened
the door and admitted his partner to
the store. They then fastened the
door and went to work packing cloth
ing into satchels. They had three or
four valices full of goods when Davis
in company with Deputy Jones, and
Sheriff Spilman made their appear
ance, but found the door locked. The
party up stairs agreeable to promise
came down opened the door and the
burglars were captured in the act of
filling another satchcl. They were
marched off to Jail where they will
probably remain until Judge Knapp
passes his opinion OH such conduct.
They are both strangers in this city.
One claims to be from New York,
and the other from some where on
the Union Pacific Railroad.
The officers managed the matter
with skill, and are entitled to thanks
for the persistency with which they
followed the thieves to their proper
stopping place-the county Jail.
Sometime during the night, the
hour Of course unknown, some per-
son or persons entered the clothing
house of Harris Bros. 4 Freedman in
Curlew Block. II seems that every
preparation for this raid had been
made beforehand. They had braces
bits, chisels, &c, with which they Gu,
hole sufficiently large to reach in
slide back the bolt, and remove {
brace that was placed against thu
door, after which there was nothing
to do but turn the knob and walk in
After they got inside they seem, from
appearances, to have taken their tim'
and pillagcd the store at their leisure
1t is not known definitely wha
amount of goods were taken, but it il
known that valuable goods are miss
ing. tits quite likely that the gans
(which the Marshals have been watch
E ing, met last night, and one party al
tackled Harris Bros. while the othc
was operating on Sax.
Il r.. 2. A n. n