The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-02
SAFE BREAKERS.
Three Divisions of Safe Thieves
Blowers fBursters' and Breakers
Exactness OF Detail I'm Their Opera
tIOnS-PrecautIOns Taken-Ihe
Tremendous Power Of
Jackscrews.
[BrookIyn Fagle.I

brooklyn Eagle.1
Safe thieves resolve themselves into
three small, but compact divisions, blow
ers, bursters and breakers. Safe blowers
do not muster strongly, but the little com
pany Is far more dangerous to the boarded
wealth than its numbers indicate. Com
monty known as burglars, their skill Is
6rst called on to gain entrance to build
Ing, which is generally accomplished by
means Of false keys made from impress
sions in wax, previously taken from the
genuine keys by sOmt bed chamber sneak
employed by the burglars. The blowers
once in the building proceed with a rapid
fly and an attention to detail made post
bic by their long experience. First, they
lower the windows of the room about an
Inch to prevent the breakage of glass,
and next they rap the safe in wet
blankets to deaden the noise of the expected
conclusion The preliminaries thus ar
ranged they drill holes in the door of the
safe near the lock, and these having been
filed with powder, fuse is attached; the
explosion takes place, the safe is torn open
and three minutes suffice for the operators
to seize its contents and escape from the
building. This is the most hazardous of
all robberies, and is never resorted to IN
less the outlaws are sure that the contents
of the safe are sufficiently valuable to com
pensate for the risks incurred. Hence, it
~ dlWayb pIGIdCCu ny d CdIGlulg anu O1Gbn
protracted seeming of the selected prem
ises, with the design of obtaining exact
information of the profits to be expected
of the contemplated adventure.
Safe bursters gain access to q building
by the same means; but henceforward are
more artistic and less daring. In common
with all other classes they work in mobs !"
of three or four persons; but they go pre-
pared to accomplish their designs rather
fNryd S1f Of ocfaTna fhan nv brIItn fOrpp
First the safe Is clamped securely to the
floor, so as to be made perfectly immova-
bic against any pressure; next, holes are
drilled In the door, and in those jack
screws are fitted to be worked by
levers The operation is entirely noise
less and thoroughly effective. No
safe was ever made strong enough to
Withstand the tremendous power thus
applied, and it is generally the work Of
only few minutes to make the shapelJ
3 strong box mass Of iron shreds. Sc
complete is the wreck that non profeS
eionals looking upon it, insist that powder
or dynamite has been used, and wonder
how the police did not hear the noise of the
terrible explosion. In point of fact, there
had been no explosion and no noise OF any
kind. The bursters, like the blowers,
never take unremunerative risks, and
never attack safe until sure of what i
contains. The attack having been made
Is almost certain to be successful and the
operators are as sure to escape undecided
with the plumber.
Safe breakers are the lowest grade Of
operators on the Wanted burglar proof re
ceptacles, and are also the most numerous
They rely solely upon main force both II
entering building and in working upor
the safe, as they pry open the first with {
"iimmy, or small hand bar, and belabOl
the latter with a hammer until it falls t
pieces. Although thieves. in the crude
state, they are not altogether idiots, anC
so wrap the hammer with old cloths as t.
materially deaden the noise. They are
less successful than the other classes anC
are more frequently "coppered that Is
arrested They are, too. a haphaz
ard set IF knaves, and even when. they
have opened safe and evaded arrest arr
often not recompensed for their trouble
for it has frequently happened that they
have overtaxed their muscles in breaking
down iron walls that enveloped nothing
whatever Of value. st