The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-17
PLUNDERING EMPTY HOUSES
A VILLAINOUS GANG OF THIEVES
COMMIT DEPREDATIONS
UNHINDERED.
THEYTEAR Our PLUMBING, LOCKS,
GAS AND ELECTRIC FIX
TURES DAILY.

For some time past a gang of sneak
thieves and burglars have been committing
depredations on a unprecedentedly large
scale among vacant houses throughout San
Francisco. Their wholesale plundering
passes belief, and what is stranger still not
one of them has been caught and the
police are powerless to check them.
The gang or gangs that day and night
go about the city looting unoccupied
houses make no distinction as to locality.
To-day they are busy in the Mission dis
trict, tomorrow uninhabited dwellings of
the Western Addition or out by Golden
Gate Park are visited. And the result is
always the same: Globes are stolen, lead.
pipes cut away, gas fixtures and electrical
appliances are torn out, and frequently
locks and keys disappear in the general
loot.
Within the last month or two this vii
famous work has assumed serious propor-
tons.
At GA Twenty-frst street the lead waste
pipes were chopped off, window shades,
gas globes and keys were stolen. While
go and ga Eddy street were vacant for
few days all the globes and keys were
taken. AT 52S Golden Gate avenue-a
large house just two blocks from
the Central police station-the ele-
CANT chandeliers and wall brackets
were twisted and torn away, every globe
was taken with the gas-ixtures, and the
lead plumbing under basins, etc..
went with the rest. 1t cost $3.50 to make
repairs.
A house at ITO Oak street was vacant for
two weeks, and several locks and KEYS
and all the globes were stolen, the locks
being unscrewed from the doors. Every
bit of lead pipe at GIG Mason street was
cut out and stolen, leaving the house
wreck. While several of the new fats at
Golden Gate avenue and Steiner street
were vacant, globes, gas-tips, doorknobs.
locks, electric buttons, bells and batteries
were stolen. The house at I'LL Golden
Gate avenue was vacant three days, but in
that time the keys, globes, electric battery
and buttons disappeared.
The thieves made a wholesale raid on
the Irvington, house of seventy rooms at
418 Ellis street, while it was uDoccupied.
The electrical apparatus, including a large
annunciator and button board in the office,
was carried away, with all the keys and
everything else OF portable ma ture
II. +. Fortman's flats at Buchanan and
Turk streets were looted of the electric
fittings, globes, incandescent lamps and
the lead pipes in the kitchens, Easements,
bathrooms and under stationary basins
in the bedrooms. A residence on
Van Ness avenue, between Bush
and Pine streets, was left without locks or
keys, or electric lights, batteries, bells and
buttons when the thieves finished with 1t.
r. E. White had two flats vacant quite
recently at the corner of Grove and Cough
streets and lost many yards of lead pipe,
all the globes, keys and gas tips.
On Folsom street, near Tenth, the same
gang of thieves maliciously cut off the
plumbing and ruined two houses. Three
new fats at S21 to 1927 Hyde street were
shamefully plundered. The faucets were
taken of, gas shades, electric globes and