Arizona republican., 1898-03-13
Rather Important Robbery for
 a ToEn of This Size
ACHINA-kMERICAN ALLIANCE
Which Cost KeSSler Boyle & Co
 From $1,OOO to $3,OOO
Three MoneoIianS Are Already In Custody and Acquisitions are Reaching Out After Their Two Caucasian Confedsratee.

Caucasian COnfodoratee.
 Some of the circumstances of a gi- gantic robbery for town Of this size and a very systematic one for town of any size, were disclosed yesterday morning when Captain Fly Mcdonald swore out warrants for the arrest of Sang Lung, a Chinese merchant; Utsu, a Japanese porter, and Lon Hoy, an- other Chinaman who keeps branch store belonging to Sang Lung near Smiths mill. As near as can be ascer- tained the system of robbery was 1nsti- tuted about December 1 by Sang Lung who was believed to be in collision with Lester Smith, driver employed by Kessler-Boyle & Co. Smiths con- nection with the affair rests upon an explanation by Sang Lung yesterday of his possession of the stolen goods. Sang Lungs main store is on South Seventh street below the s. F, P. & P. tracks.
 Attention was called couple of months ago to his growing trade and the secret of it was found in the fact that he was selling groceries far below all other merchants. It was suspected at that time that he was handling stolen property and there was an overhaulfng of stocks by all the merchants, but nothing was found missing. If Sang Lungs goods were stolen, the place most likely to be plundered would be Kellners ware house. which is the only one isolated from the store, but that seemed to be intact. Sang Lung bought a great many groceries from Barkley-Berry- man & Co.,, Kessler-Boyle & Co.,, The B. F. Kellner Go. and J. w. Doris. That he could afford to sell below these and other merchants was inex- plicable upon but one theory. He had been buying a great deal of wheat from MeNcans and Indians. It was possible that he had overloaded him. self and as he had traded wheat to merchants for groceries it was sur missed that he was selling the good for less than cost in order to. get the wheat back into money.
 This theory seemed the more reasonable since he was known to be hard up and at one time offered to let Barkley-Berry- man & Co., have a lot of unbroken packages at less than cost in payment of bill of $10o he owed The offer was accepted. The packages bore no marks indicating that they might have previously belonged to some other merchant in Phoenix. The dis covery came about in the following manner: About week ago MT. Bark ley learned that Sang Lung was sell ing Durham tobacco at $12.50 bale. The wholesale price was then $15. MT Barkley suggested to Mir. Kessler that they each buy bale. They did so and when it was delivered MT. Kessler. was astounded by the discovery that the bale bore the name of Kessler-Boyle & Go.
 An investigation of the books showed that the firm had not sold Sang Lung any Durham tobacco in bales The affair was then put into the hands of Captain Fly McDonaJd He employed men to shadow the driver for Kessler-Boyle & Go. and employed other men to buy groceries of Sang Lung. On one occasion enc Of these buyers inquired for something which was not in stock. He was told to call in half an hour and the goods would be ready for him. They were. An other buyer wanted something from a package whio6 bore the name of Kess ler-Boyle & Go. Sang Lung replied that that had been put up for ship ment. It was also observed that most of the packages bore erasures
 Captain Mcdonald had secured enough evidence yesterday morning to warrant him in making the arrest and the two Chinamen and the Japanese were taken into custody. There were recovered at the same time, five sacks sugar, six sacks beans, four boxes Durham chewing tobacco, one box smoking tobacco, three boxes canned goods, bale of rope, two boxes of matches, boxes of chocolate, pressed corn beef and a miscellaneous lot of other groceries. They were all taken to Justice Johnstone's office, which was given the appearance of a whole sale grocery store. There were sev- eral packages in Sang Lungs stock bearing the names of other merchants. but he had probably bought them.
 From Sang Lungs admissions and Captain McDonald's researches the robbery appears to have been con- ducted in the following manner:
 A