The San Francisco call., 1898-02-16
Located the Hiding Place for the Grocer's Money
 by a Clever Ruse.
Feigned a Fight While Con- federate Sneaked Behind
 the Counter.
LEAVE NO CHEW BEHIND.
Haoqled About a Broken Window While His Store Was Being
 LOoted.

Four daring burglars made a success full raid on a grocery store kept by Herman Shoemaker at Cough and Oak streets yesterday morning. Their plan of robbery was original and they se- cured about $500 in cash, a check for $40 and two postoffice orders for small amounts.
 The proprietor was alone in his store shortly before noon when a young man entered and asked for a cake of com pressed yeast. He rendered a S10 gold piece in payment and Shoemaker went to desk guarded by a railing at the farther end of the counter and pro- cured the change. A few minutes after the customer left another young man entered the barroom of the place and called for a glass of beer. It was served to him, and as he stood at the bar drinking, and while the storekeeper was busytng him. self about the place, there came a crash of breaking glass at the front of the store. A paint pot had been hurled through the front window.
 Schomaker rushed from behind the counter of his store and out on the sidewalk to see what the trouble was and to find out who was to blame for the damage to his place. On the side walk were two men apparently fight ing. One of them wore the dress of a painter and it was he who had thrown the paint pot. He claimed the other man had owed him 30 cents and he was trying to collect it when a row oc- cured. He tried to hit his debtor over the head with the paint pot, but missed him and smashed the window instead. The two men made a further bluff at Quarreling and then commenced to dis pute as to who should pay for the broken glass. Finally the alleged debt or agreed to pay for the window pro- vided the amount he owed to the paint CT should be considered as paid. To that the painter agreed, and the man, after grOping in his pockets in an ap- parent search for a coin, said he did not have any money with him, but he would go home and get it and pay the grocer for the broken glass. He started off toward Fell street, and a moment later the man who had Quarreled with him followed.
 The grocer went back into his store. The man who had been drinking the beer when the window was broken was gone. He had departed through a side door. The grocer had occasion a moment later to look into the desk and when he opened it buckskin sack in which he kept his money was found to be missing. Then it dawned upon the grocer that the purchase of the yeast cake by the stranger and the beer drinker who came in soon afterward and the feigned fight in the front of the store by which the win dow was broken were all in a plan ar- ranged by the robbers to get his money.
 The man who purchased the yeast cake and offered a ten-dollar gold piece in payment went into the store for the purpose of locating the place where the grocer kept his money. The large coin was given in payment to make the stOrekeeper go to his cash supply to get the change. The young man who entered the barroom and asked for beer had been told the exact place to look for the sack that con- tained the grocer's money. While he was slipping his beer two of his com panions were to give him an opportun- ity to get to it and escape with the money. They feigned the fight in the front of the store. It was part of the plan of the burglars to break the win dow and so hold the attention of the grocer while the man who purchased the beer sneaked in behind the coun- . ter lO the OeSh anu secured the SACK or coin.
 They succeeded we'll Shoemaker had forgotten all about the man he had left in the bar of his place when he went to see about the broken win dow, and he did not think of him again until he missed the money.
 The man who sneaked behind the counter and secured the sack of coin was about B years of age as well as Shoemaker can remember his customer He had a slight mustache and was about five feet nine inches tall: The man who was dressed as painter was about 30 years of age and he wore a dark mustache. He had on the usual white suit worn by members of the painters craft, with dark jacket over the white blouse He was about five feet seven inches tall. The man he feigned to be quarreling with was about 9 years of age and about an inch shorter than the man who al-