The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-05
swim ding THE
union PACIFIC.
SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS OF A BAND
OF EXPERT CHECK
RAISERS.
NOTHING WITHSTANDS THEM.
RAILROAD DETECTIVES TRACING
THE BOLD RGUEs, WHO
FLEE WESTWARD.

MDENvER, March 4.-One of the most sys-
tematic and ingenious check-raising swim
dies that was ever successfully carried out
IN America has just been unearthed in this
city, the victims being the Union Pacific
Railway Company, nearly every bank in
Denver and several dry goods and other
houses. The method used by the swim
dlers shows them to be master criminals,
as daring as they are dishonest.
Early last month the Union Pacific pay
car left Omaha on its regular monthly trip
to Salt Lake City, with the wages of the
company's employees. Closely following
the car came gang of check-raisers, and
its members left the marks of their skill
with acid, ink and pen in nearly every
town where Union Pacific employees reside.
The full extent of their operations and the
loss to the company, or those who took the
raised salary checks, is not yet fully
known, but enough has leaked out to show
that the check-raisers have netted thou
sands of dollars by the swindle.
The full force of the Union Pacific de-
tective corps is at work on the matter, as
well as the police authorities in Denver
and all the other towns on the line. The
gang visited the hotels and saloons most
frequented by the railroad men, where
large portion of the checks had been cashed
or traded in and bought them up for cash.
In value the checks ranged from $40 to
500, but each one was skilfully raised to
$110 and passed for that amount at banks
and stores. In every instance the raised
checks were rendered for some small pur-
chases, so that the gang got nearly the
entire amount in cash.
In Denver the checks ultimately reached
different city banks, where they were pro-
nounced all right and forwarded to Omaha.
The Union Pacific auditor then passed all
the $110 checks as being 80. X. - and COM
menced the balancing of the accounts.
When the returned cheeks were compared
with the stubs of the check-book the fact
became apparent that the checks had been
tempered with, and work was at once COM
menced by the railroads detectives It is
supposed that the gang worked west to
Salt Lake and then escaped to the coast.
OMAHA, Nebr., March 4.-Startling de-
velopments were made in the Union Pa
cific check-raising swindle to-day, which
are calculated to alarm all corporations
paying in checks. The discovery was
made that the gang who operated on the
Union Pacific system have a method of
erasing ink with an acid which defies the
best made paper, which is guaranteed to
show the slightest presence of acid or other
foreign substances.
The amount secured by the work of the
gang is not yet known, but it is not as
large as at first supposed. The fact is not
regarded as of much Importance, however,
a rod with tho II,
is puzzling the company's chemists and
detectives. The paper on which the checks
are printed has been regarded until now
as being absolutely proof against manip-
ulation, but the operations of the gang of
experts shattered all the claims of the in
ventors of the paper that their invention
is acid proof.
The checks which were raised failed to
show single erasure mark, and the
amount of the check in figures in the right
hand corner, as well as the written amount
in the body of the check, were wiped out
as completely as if cloth had been used
in removing dust from a table top Not
content with removing the figures, in one
instance the name of the employee was re-
moved and new name substituted, show
ing they had mastered the secret COM
pletely
Frank Brown, local treasurer of the
Union Pacific Company, stated that he
had never seen checks SO fiawlessly altered
| as in the Denver case. They had passed
| through his hands, but a powerful glass
had failed to show the least manifestation,
and if he had not known the checks were
| raised he would have sworn they were
| originally as made. 1t was his opinion
that no other altered checks would turn
up, upon the theory that the men had
| been able to clean up quite sum and
| would leave for other fields to prosecute
tn cir rascality.
What is to be done is the question
which is perplexing the minds of officials
| at the Union Pacific headquarters to-day.
They argue that the puncturing of the
| amount of check on it's face, by a
machine invented for the purpose, can be
filled out with papier mache, painted over
and new puncture made for different
amount. That chemically prepared papers
are OF no avail with the discovery of acids
that will wipe out the most reliable ink as
easily as dirt may be displaced with water.
| The Burlington people are also excited
| over the paper, for they use the Underwood
safety paper and they have to go back to
the old method of paying employees in cur
rency, should no check paper be discov-
cred.