The Saint Paul globe., 1897-06-07
VERY FISHY STORY
TOLD BY TWO SUSPECTS UNDE8
ARREST at NARGARET
STREET STATION.
MAY BE The SILK THIEVES
WHO RECENTLY TOOK A VAIJABIE
BOLT IN THE WHOLESALE
DISTRICT.
THEY CARRIED A QUEER BOX.
And Do Not Agree as to the PurooSA
for Which 1t Was to Be
Used.

The Margaret street police authori-
ties have in custody two young men,
George Hainlin and William L. Worth
1ngton, who are suspected of having
been engaged in a well-planned shop
lifting expedition among the stores Of
Dayton's bluff Saturday afternoon.
When the men were arrested they were
in possession Of no stolen property. but
had a large pasteboard box, carefully
wrapped up in brown paper, which,
upon examination, the police claimed to
be clever device for stealing. The
box is about two feet and half long,
two feet wide. and fifteen inches deep,
and had an eight-inch square hole
through the wrapping paper ana bot
tom. The box is carried with the
hole next to the body of one of the
men, it is said, whose purpose it was.
while the other engaged the attention
Of storekeepers, to put valuable mer-
chandise through the aperture thus
concealed. 1t was at first the belief
of the police that the prisoners were
the men who had stolen a bolt of silk
from the store of Lindeke, Warner &
Schurmeier last Thursday afternoon
by similar methods, but the sales
man who had waited upon the silk
thieves failed yesterday to identify
Hainlin and Worthington as the right
parties.
The young men are held on the tech
nical charge of vagraney, and both de-
ny the designs imputed to them by the
police. They were arrested by Officer
their suspicious actions by George n.
Malmgren, the proprietor of a shoe
store at 912 Arcade street. The men
called at Malmgren's place ostensibly
to purchase a pair of shoes and looked
over good portion of the stock. ap-
parently unable to find anything to
suit them. The proprietor, however,
did not allow the men to become sep
arated, keeping close watch upon both
of them, and when they left the store
informed Officer Hoefer of their sus-
pected purpose. After their arrest it
was learned that Hainlin and Worth
ington had also visited the shoe store
of Henry Behrens, SIG East Seventh
street, and the dry goods store of Mrs.
Ida E. Herman, $685. East Seventh
street where in each instance they
asked to be shown q large number of
articles. but made no purchases. The
fact that the men had no money when
searched at the station, the police
claim, is evidence that they did not
intend to buy anything when they
visited the stores.
The prisoners deny the accusations
of the authorities, and tell different
stories about the peculiarly arranged
box They first declared they were
going fishing and had the box in which
to place grasshoppers, for which they
claimed to be looking when arrested.
When informed that it was rather
early for grasshoppers and that there
were probably none of the insects this
side Of Kansas at this time of the
year, the prisoners switched to frogs,
and said they had been seeking Them
for bait Hainlin. whose correct name
is said to he George Hess. and Worth=
irgton live in st. Paul, and both claim
to be members of Company H, of the
state militia. The last published roster
of that company. however, does pot
show the name of either.