Evening star., 1897-03-05
THIEVES WERE ACTIVE
Light Fingered Gentry Reap q Liberal
Harvest.
Houses Entered and Robbed fn Day
light-The Cases Reported
and Some Arrests.

AS was to be expected, thieves took ad
vantage of the situation IN this city yes
terday, and during the evening and this
morning quite a number of robberies were
reported to the police. What is thought to
have been an organized gang of house
breakers from New York operated actively
in the northwest section between IL o'clock
in the morning and 3 o'clock in the after
noon, while the majority of the residents
were down town, and quite a number of
losses resulted.
The principal victim was Mr.. James III.
Eckles, controller of the currency. MIR.
Eckles residence, 1926 18th street, was
perhaps the first place visited, entrance
being secured through a basement door
way by means of skeleton key. The
crooks established headquarters in the
bed room of Mrs. Eckles on the second
floor, and gathered in costly gold watch,
a gold bracelet, necklace Of pearls, four
gold and one silver bracelet, a pair of
large plain gold cuff buttons, pearl set
ring and other articles of value. The same
men. it is believed, next sauhtered INTO
the residence of Mrs. Hopkins, l42o 5Dth
street, using again the basement door as
a means of ingress. working the lock with
skeleton kew Booty valued at more
than 500 was secured in an assortment oil
jewelry while So in cash also found Its
way into the wad of the crooks
Other homes throughout the northwest.
ern section of the city were entered ana
in each case the thieves were rewarded
for their efforts by securing small amounts.
Mount Pleasant was also the scene OF
crooked operations. Thieves entered the
house of Mr.. William H. Rhees In broad
daylight and. after gaining entrance by
breaking open a rear window, searched the
place from garret to roof. They succeed
ed in gathering fair assortment OF val
uables and were preparing to leave tne
place when Ottoway Brown, watchman
| on the premises, stopped proceedings for
awhile. aided by promising looking shot
| gum which he leveled at the heads OF the
light-fngered gentry. One, however. risk
! ed a charge of buckshot, and. darting be-
| hind the house. managed to escape Brown
| had the patrol wagon of the eighth pre-
| cinct summoned to the scene. and his pris-
| oner was soon in custody on his way to
| cell.
| At the station house the man was at once
recognized as Frank. alias Fatty. Moore,
| well known as an all-around rascal
| DR. Walter E. Reid was another victim OF
| crooks holiday" and lost valuable guam
| tity of jewelry. Pickpockets, too. piled
| their vocation yesterday among the
throngs along the avenue and many a
| strange pocket. Numerous complaints
| reached headquarters yesterday OF the dep
| relations of this crew. The most seriously
touched however. was John Redfield. a
! resident of Woodbury. N J. Mr.. Redfield
! was the victim of the female crook. and
| lost a purse containing s65 III cash and a
number of notes, invaluable to any one but
| himself.
| The local detective force. assisted by
| members of the detective forces of many
| prominent cities. spent yesterday drculat-
| ing among the crowds with an eye peeled
| for the genus crook, and their vigilance
| was rewarded by a number of arrests, IN
| many instances, however, upon suspic.or
| only Chris Meyer we'll known In Balti
more police circles. was recognized on tne
| avenue by Detectives Hussey and Ward Of
| that city. and Detective Hartgan Of the
sixth made the arrest. Meyer was acting
in a suspicious manner. Edward Cooper
| and Henry Crawford, both colored, were
also among the arrests; Cooper on account
| of the bad reputation which marks nj:
previous career and Crawford for attempte-
larceny, for which he received six month:
in Jail. John Rupp and Z. w. Weiiinf
were also acting strangely among tn'
crowds, and were put out of temptation
way by Detectives Carter of this city
Knox Of Boston, Walsh of st. Louis ant
John DeShields colored. was seen in al
attempt to work the crowd on the avenue
yesterday and Detective Proctor and Po
| lie aman Herbert locked him up. Eli Moore
/ William Acton and Frank Jackson. colores
| men, were locked up during the AFTERNOON
on suspicion. These were also elbowint
, | through the parade viewers in suspicious
style, so Detective Proctor tnouSnt, ana m
locked them up.
Annie Wentworth and her partner, Josepl
} Reynolds. both of whom are known to Bos
ton detectives Tor crOOkedneSS, were IOun'
) yesterday at the corner of 9th and the ave
; nue. and were locked up. The couple wer
dressed in the height of style and woul,
have passed muster anywhere for sterlini
integrity and honesty. Mrs. Lawrence Nc
Kie reported yesterday at headquarter
that her pocket had been picked Will
watching the parade. The purse secure,
by the thief contained so and a return
railroad ticket to Greenville, s. c.
Eldred G. Davis, collector for the Dis
trict of Columbia, who lives at 221l
street northwest, reported to the polio
| yesterday that thieves entered his hom
during the absence of the family and Sc
cured $1CO in valuable jewelry. Lost peopl
also bothered the police yesterday. an
: several anxious inquirers found their wa
| to headquarters to leave descriptions o
missing friends. Archie Hill, colored. @
| 1722 14tk street northwest, aged sevent
years. and Walter wainwright. fourteen
year-ol1 boy, who is visiting at g25 street
were still missing this morning, while
. dozen others whom the police were aske
to look out for were found and returne
} safely to friends.
} All in all. however the amount of Grim
} and number of arrests have fallen belo,
I police expectations. and in comparison wit
! the size of the crowd. and the inadeQuat
police protection in uptown districts dur
ing the progress of the parade, the da
. ma SSe,3 unieflv indeed