The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-14
STOLE THE CHURCH CARPET.
Police Find the Tapestry on the Floor
of Samuel Parlxer's Home.

At last the police have arrested the man
who stole the carpet from the floor of the
Fourth Presbyterian Church. He is Samuel
w. Parker, aged about thirty-five years,
married and living with his wife at Isl old
Shelby street. About two months ago, one
Sunday morning, when the sexton of the
beautiful new church at the corner of Ala
bama and old Tenth streets opened the
building, he was surprised to see that the
pews were all awry. Those on the south
side of the room, for a distance of about
twenty feet had been torn up. closer
scrutiny disclosed the fact that d great
piece of the new carpet had been cut out
The thief had ripped off seven widths and
then, with a pocketknife, had cut it off to
a length of about sixteen feet. The police
tried every way to locate the crime, but the
nearest to a clew they got was statement
made by a colored man that he had seen
some one pushing a wheelbarrow from the
direction of the church.
The discovery that Parker was the man
who stole the carpet was not made until
yesterday, and Parker had been in jail since
June for another crime. His arrest was
brought about in a peculiar manner. a
week before his arrest j. j. Clark, a grocer
on Central avenue, had a bicycle stolen.
He reported the case TO the police. Set eral
days later he received a letter from Parker
saying that he (Parker) knew who had the
wheel and Offering TO nave 1t returned,
provided Clark would insert an ADVERTISE
ment in a paper announcing that the return
of the wheel would be accepted and no ques-
lions asked. The letter went on TO say that
the man who stole the wheel Was conscience
stricken and anxious to restore it to the
owner, but was afraid to do so.
Clark kept the letter a day or two and
then showed it to the police and was ad-
Yised TO insert the advertisement, telling
Parker or the man who had the wheel TO
return it the following day at 4:30 clock
The next day was June z AT oclock
Detective Thornton stationed himself at
Clark store and later Detective Kinney
oitered about the vicinity; 1t was not UNI
Til $3.50 o clock, however, that Parker came
up riding the wheel. He was arrested.
Yesterday Police Superintendent Colbert
returned to his office after long absence
a search warrant in the hands of Detectives
Kinney and Thornton and they proceeded
TO ParkerS home, No. l51 Shelby street.
They We're more than surprised at what
their attention was the carpet in the front
room. 1t was the piece cut out of the
carpet on the floor OF the Fourth Presby-
terrain Church. A further search and the
detectives found some hams and other ar
ticles which had been stolen from a grocery
near Parker's acme. There was another
surprise when they found, made up in a
neat taiIor-made bicycling costume for Mrs.
Parker, some valuable cloth stolen from a
tailor shop close by.
Mrs. Parker was not implicated in her
husbands misdeeds. She says that he told
her he bought the carpet and other things
from secondhand stores and she claims
she had no reason to doubt him. The police
are uncertain about what kind of a man
they have caught The robberieS they be-
lieve him to have committed shcw the work
Of an expert, but the desire to surrender
the stolen wheel looks like the work of a
novice. He was photographed and his pic
lures have been sent 10 various cities for
Sill