, 1881-02-06
BOLD ROBBERY.
A Sneak-Thief Taps a Blue Island
Bank Safe,
And Gets Away with S1,400 Cash
and Gold Watch.
The Job Done In Very Clever Man.
ners

Friday evening" shortly before o'clock, sneak
thieves succeeded IN very adroit manner In
ropbsnE a large iron safe In the Office of c. +.
Schumacher, No. a9t Blue Island avenue.
OF upwards of $I,400 cash. and a gold
watch aud chain valued at 500. Mr. schu-
maoher does quite an extensive business
IN the wny of renl estate, fire insurance. sales
and transfers Of all sorts, and private banking
may with reason bo added to the list. Asso-
ciuted with him In the business are two sons
aged e and A years. The Office is on tho main
floor Of thrce-story brick building at the north
east corner Of Thirteenth street and
Ulue Island avenue, and, owing to
the angie Of intersection Of those streets,
tho building has peculiar FACADE ind truncat-
ed corner. Large plate-glass windows are on
both street-frpnts, md access to the office may
be had In several why's. Within there are tho
usual Rulings aud doors, behind which are the
DECKS. racks, safe, and other appliances Of Il
counting; room. Friday evening found Mr.
Sc humacbcr's eldest son, John C., alone
in the oilice, which is upon all occasions
kept open until o'clock In the eyeuing, or later,
| rs a great proportion OF the trude Is amongst
tho working classes. Tho story of'1he robbery
| il concsely stated by tho young man. While
busy upon his accounts. he was interrupted by
| a rough looking fellow who entered and
| circulated, "Bnss, don't you want to buy
| loud Of kindtfng wood lie replied IN
| Il decided negative, ana turned to continue his
| work. The fellow utter fun,hln2 about the do"r
for Il moment or two went out. nnd moment or
| Two luter Mr. Schauuucher WIS again Inter,
rupted by loud anu angry words outside, and
Walk ia front OF the o1icc. The contestants
| were erowdiug each other towards the building,
und for time the prob4hty was tnat eltner e.r
window pane. Naturally enough. Mr.. schc,,
tnacher's attention WIS riyctcd to the fight 9nd
he once or twice shouted to them to bo careful.
| mil dtsr m 6hnAHa which might cost them
hs' have elapsed, when sr: Schumacher caught q
| Was crawling III cat- ks manner FROM behind
one Ut the frn1ne partitions. WHO are you?
What 40 you wnt t snoe,ea a M H., T., .'r
ling OF an eye, the hitter WAS upon his feet,
! mud
| REVOLVER, COOKED AND READY FOR USE,
suddenly appoared In his right hand. Speak;
and you are u dead man.. snid the 81 zee e-yisaged
| desperate. US he propped up the young. clerks
! nose with the barrci OF the weaL@: whether
| se,,sibly or otherwise Mr.. Schumacher tell back
pncc Or two, u1,d made no demonstration; the
| thief slipped past him, aud dashed our nt the
front door all THIS happened 50 quietly and
not know Of the robbery until Yesterday, sev.
| eral remember OF having seen the scume 6u1
nothing Of the taeft rst Mr. h;t
the police by menns OF the telephone:
The investigation which followed showed that
the thieves had gut only portion Ut the money
contents Of the safe-namely. common c'4ar-
boz containing dozen or more enxeinpes n u
belonged to John c. Schumacher. The money
/ was the savings OF some ut tbs hrm' Oldest
and best patEons u number Of whom on
have mnde practice since the panic and the
miserable collapse Of city savtngs 3; b. banss s2 Of
macher. The thieves missed about l,5u> cash
which wns. elsewhere In the office, aad also sey-
ore erar ai snother pacESge 81 $50 in United
States bonds. which was lying directly oeheatn
the etgur-box:
reporter at hrs home. Oh the corner OF Henry
! and Paulina streets. bur 1t was with great re-
niout the robbery. @ It ,sas hs habit to relnain
iu the office until, closing time M"nday, Tues
day, and "Wednesday syeni1ES Az and bis younger ::e
ing, nights IN the week from :; ABOUT bout
of 9nt f9p ana TIVE IN sSe oe
have i 50 bill changed He was refused, ana d.
es1o2ior esd entered and put The question Boss,
don't you want to buy some ktndlnS-
wooa2 As the latter was ;eaving lbe olce
! cuusing the inmates to think that some one en-
tered directly after the kindllng- wood man went
to these
| SOMEWHAT SUSPICIOUS MOVEMENTS,
and they took good care thnt they were not
| wutched from the outside us they were making
uu or putting away the cash. However,
they saw nothing further to arouse oou-
ment Thursday evening found the fmther
upuIp busy Ill The Office, this time With the elder
son. The next evening the father went home ut
$3.50 o'clock. The doors uf tho safe were keFt
closed nearly ull the time, and according TO
Johu the knob was at the time of the robbery
turnad slightly t. the left,-}uss enough 10 pre-
vent any outsider from opening the safe.
] unless be was aware OF the way to go ABOUT IT,
Tho knob WIS nearly always kept turned III this
wuy and it IS presumed that the thief was thor
| ouxhly posted On even this trivial point
| Mr. Schumacher Is sure that tue thieves, VINO
| over they were, are very well known III the
nciybborhood. and, though he has no douht
Of thoir capture by the. detectives In tna
ever recovering the money. He announces that
| he will make good the loss to the actual losers.
| His attorneys advise him that ne could not oe
held responsible for the loss, us the money was
not at interest but simply placed BY the owners
! In his safe ut their own risk. but nevertheless
| he hNs scrupIcs about settling the Ut
| fair in thut way. Though It went great
" against his grnln to receive
such deposits, knowing as be did that the othce
safe wns not the best place In the world for such
purposes, he was induced to permit the thing oy
| his customers. ,
lock md KEY, but thus far they hnve no actual
ciew, and tht,se hcld IN custody nre simply sns-
pected of being capable of just such Il robbery.
They did nut have To search far from ar. scnu-
machcr's Office to find as likely lot OF profes-
sIoual thieves and ex-conyfcts Us existanywnere
| within the city limits.
cTpNNG TESTIMONY.