The Portland daily press., 1877-08-20
Arres. OF a No,ed Horse Thief.

AT an early hour yesterday morning Marshal
Bridges received despatch from Brunswick,
| stating that The team of G. G. Crawford, the
postmaster of that town, was stolen the night
before from the stable. The marshal in some
way found out that team answering the
| description of the one stolen had been seen
near Vaughan's bridge at 5 o clock that morn
| ing. With this clew and ACCOMPANIED by
Deputy Marshal Crowel, he started at nine
o'clock. He followed the trail, and by enouir-
ing at several houses discovered that the stolen
team had gone in the direction of Scarboro'.
After going about eight miles they came out of
long piece of woods and called at the bouse
of man named Libby. Here thew gave
description of the man ana team, and to their
delight were told that the team was then in
the stable, and that the man had borrowed a
dish and gone berrying. The officers examined
the team and discovered that it answered the
description given exactly. The marshal then
planned novel plan to get the thief. If they
had marched out to where he was, he would of
course suspected that something was up
and made good his escape. Instead of this the
officers borrowed pals and dippers, as if they
too were after blueberries, and accompanied by
guide started after the thief The pasture in
which the berries were to be found was milo
distant from Mr.. Libby's house. The guide
was not let into the secret, and as they ap-
preached the field he shouted to his brother,
who had gone out as guide to the thief. A
reply came, and in this manner the officers
came in sight of their man. They were
apparently very much engrossed in the work of
gathering berries for some time, but were
slowly separating to surround the object of
their Sunday Dissertation. AS they drew near
to him, the Marshal walked up deliberately
and made the arrest. To say that he was sur
prised hardly expresses it. He had just arrived
on the spot and never once dreamed that any
one knew of his whereabouts
He at once acknowledged his guilt and gave
his name as George Haskell. Last winter he
was employed by George Rose as hostler in
his stable in this city. He also admits that
he stole the valuable Knox colt from Bow doin
last week and brought it to this city, where he
sold it to Mr.. Robinson, the blacksmith. He is
well appearing young man and would hardly
be suspected of being the professional horsa
thief that he
Just as the Marshal returned to this city with
the man and team, son of Mr.. Crawford and
James johnson, his hostler, arrived from
Brunswick in search of the stolen property,
which is valued at $500. Mr.. Crawford says
that the carriage and harness belonged to an
older brother, while the horse was the property
of his father. The thief was very particular
in selecting carriage, for he ran one belong
ing to Mr.. Crawford near out and took the one
belonging to the SOD, which was in the back
side of the stable. He also took the best of
three harnesses, and the same course was pur-
sued in selecting horse. The team was prob
ably taken about midnight. In leaving the
yard the thief turned the team earound several
times, so it was impossible to tell by the tracks
which way he had gone. This was very
clever trick, but it was not enough to deceive
the Marshal. who wanted to 90 blueberrying on
the Sabbath