Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-03-06
MAILS ARE EASY 70 ROB.
Postal Thieves Are Ingenious
But Few Ever Escape
Final Detection.
THE SHREWD INSPECTORS
Sometimes 1t Takes Months to Cap
ture a Thief and Some
times Years.
HE SHREWD INSPECTORS

fobberies.
Post office thieves may work un-
detected for months, perhaps years,
| nut they are sure to be entrapped
and punished in the end" SAID an old
detective of the Post Office Depart
ment. And | may add" he con.
tinued. that no other thief is harder
to catch than the one who robs Uncle
Sans mails. Their methods are in
genious, the plunder is easily hidden
or destroyed and their rascality is
well masked by the honesty and in
tegrity of associates"
Post Office thieves are not arrested
every day, although valuable letters
and other articles are stolen almost
daily and an army of shrewd inspect
ors are on the alert. Positive proof of
guilt must be in the possession of an
inspector before an arrest is made.
In almost every instance arrest means
conviction. A Post Office employee
never knows when he is being shadow
ed Even when not under suspicion
of theft he may be watched outside of
business hours to see if he is spending
more money than his salary will per-
init and If he is galloping with a fast
gang. 1t sometimes happens that an
inspector may not he able to prove his
man a thief and the accused is turn
ed loose with a verdict of mot guilty
as his certificate of honesty, but that
man is not wanted by the Post Office
Department any more.
Years ago" resumed the inspector,
as he filled his pipe 'on one of the old
star routes out in New Mexico hun
dreds of letters containing money,
J,,of ftr ala ,,,I ,l,,,
were stolen. At first letters and all
disappeared, but the thieves changed
their mode of operation and simply
stole the contents, resealing the letters
and sending them on. As letters pass
through the hands of many clerks it
is always difficult to locate the thief.
Months of faithful work resulted in
nothing being discovered as to the
identity of the thieves, and the rifiing
of letters continued.
FINALLY there was happy solution
of the trouble. One of the inspectors
procured a quantity of different kinds
of drugs and sent other inspectors
over the entire route with Instructions
to make a tour of book Investigations
and while thus engaged to place some
of one kind of the drugs in the mucil-
age bottle at eacn office, taking care
to make a memorandum which would
show at what office the drug had been
| placed. 1t was not long before a
registered letter came through with
the money gone. The inspector put
| his lips TO the seal of the envelope,
tasted the mucilage, referred to his
| book, and at once named the office
Il, "nich ,he par.lvular urus nao peeh
placeu III the hiuciiase' linen lot OF
oecoy registereu iet'ers went 10 tiat
oiiice' anu 'he uishones. postmaster
secured the contents anu tne inspect
OTIS secureu nihh' Ihls' 1 think' was
one oi the cieFerest Pieces oi WORK
vi uone ny 'he paitihehl' Inc III
spector "ho put !, ih'o execution was
nne chehiisl anu knew eAactly WHAT
hlhu OIL uruss 10 get
IheIe are pu' IWo Su,tesslui ways
W cn'ch fost Chice 'nlei ei-coistun'
wolchlhs anu uecoy Ntters' W ith
,hese anu patieIce lhe game VIII oe
iahueu' al'housh oiteh REQUIRES
hioh'ns anu n~oihetiiiies ~ Years. 1T ,s
one oi Tue mos. Annoying ana olihcuit
hhes OIL oe'eclive WORK man ever
engaged IN ana requires the most
earnest appilcatlon; MOI single CIR
cuihstahce OF uetaii must De overlook
eu' Soiie,,ii'es luck heips us gu. oi
our dlincullies' i rellelhDeT once III
CITY not very iar from washington
tnihss were IN III state In tne
r ulslrlout'oh ui' ~ lsioh Vi 'he ounce. /.
q natch tho follow who r.as n,nLina
NO, 18th voIuo,Jo iot+ors o,,o a. :
thars came m a terrifc q rain md viii,
c his came . hannv thought to tho in'
snoctor no cnrried hnrtet of ,y,tn,
into tha LOFT and threw II on ths ,var
e baod nlasteriny inst ovnr tho dis
a trih,tsrs NatnraIjv n Ie,,f was snrnmo
ond n y,orLmon who n,oe tal,an i,te
the confidence of the insnactor wa.
o sent into the loft to make an invest
a cation AccidentaIlv On nurnose hi,
foot wont tbroueb the wat MA stering a.
C leaving bole
r zoe ao,,rao - roo;u u,;, :. ,,,
49,, o..,i .i
y go, ~ dist,;,,,'ti, " Wv 'ne "oi
= ti,Ta ~ @ 49, ~ ~ 'n' anu, "a,
liz, .n III, ',,, ,,,ii,n ,,, "'r. i,,,, aae",
,,,d ",n - - 80 " ,,,. - .ne ,nnpse'oi