The San Francisco call., 1899-09-05
DARING THIEVES
GET AWAY WITH
VALUABLE BOOTY
The Forbes Residence
RansaCked.
A WOMAN Is SUSPECTED
NEARLY $4,000 WORTH OF GEMS
AND JEWELRY TAKEN.
Entrance Effected Through the Front
Door by Means of Skeleton Keys
During the Absence of
the Family.
NEARLY $4,000 WORTH OF GEMS
AND JEWELRY TAKEN.

A bold robbery was committed on Sat-
urday evening at the home Of Arthur w.
Forbes, 2123 Sacramento street, and nearly
$4,000 worth of plunder was secured by the
thieves. 1t is the belief of Mrs. Forbes
that the burglary was the work Of a
woman, although she will not admit that
she has any direct suspicious as to the
identity Of the guilty parties. From the
surrounding circumstances there can be
no question that the culprit was thor
oughlys familiar with the premises
Forbes went, to the. theater, leaving Mrs;
Forbes mother, who is an invalid. and
her two nurses in the upper part of the
the nurses was attracted by the barking
of the housedog downstairs, but as 1t
was not an unusual thing for the animal
to create a disturbance no investigation
was made. 1t is presumed that the
thieves were acquainted with the dog, for
it suddenly stopped barking and remained
on the lower floor while they We're ran
sacking the place.
The robbery was not discovered until
midnight; when Mr.. and Mrs. Forbes re-
aroused by finding the, front door wide
open. Mrs. Forbes made a hasty search
and was not long in discovering that
nearly everything in the lower part Of
the house that was Of any value had been
taken. Without disturbing the things that
they did not want, the burglars went
through the dressing cases in the lower
valuable gems and jewelry, and Sc
cured about $1,000 worth of diamonds and
about $500 worth of jewelry, including
twenty-one scarfpins belonging to Mr..
Forbes. They also went through a cab
met of curios of Mr.. Forbes, taking
Grecian lamp of considerable value and
a number OF impressions Of Pompeiian
seals that had been sent to him by friends
at the time of the excavations.
From the bedroom the robbers went to
the dining-room on the floor below where
they took every article of silverware that
there was in the house They even
stripped the table that had been set for
the morning meal. A large telescope bas-
ket is missing and 1t is presumed that
the thieves used it to carry off their
plunder.
Returning to the upper floor, the bur-
glars ransacked Mr.. Forbes desk and Sc
cured a little over $500 in cash.
Entrance was effected by means Of
skeleton key in the front door. None of
the other entrances nor the fastening of
the windows were disturbed.
day, that the thieves were thoroughly
familiar with the house, for the reason
that they went right to the places where
the valuables were kept without disturb
ing anything else. Many of my jewels
were hidden in t-of-the-way closets,
but they apparently located them without
any difficulty. l am convinced that the
burglary was committed under the guild
ance of a woman, although l do not SuS-
pect any one who has been in my en-
ploy"
The matter was reported to the police,
and Detectives Gibson and Wren were
detailed on the case. Part of the stolen
property has been recovered, but there is
no clew to the identity of the thieves.
Mr.. Forbes is the manager for G.. NJ
JosseIyn & Co., and his wife was form
erly well known in theatrical circles, hav-
ing starred under the name of Sallle