Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-08-25
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.

post Office thieves may work I'M
detected for moLtAs. perhaps years,
but they are SUR to be entrapped
and punished in tie end" SAID an old
detective of the Post Office Depart
ment And | may add" he con-
tinued. "tlat no other thief is harder
to catch than the one who robs Uncle
Sans mails Their methods are in
genious, the plumber 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. \ Post Office employee
never knows when - is being shadow
ed. Even when MT under suspicion
of theft he may be watched outside of
business hours to s, if he is spending
more money than | is salary will per-
nit and if he is GA looping with a fast
gang. 1t sometime5 happens that an
inspector may not e able to prove his
man n thief and Il e accused is turn
ed loose with n vertict of not guilty.
as his certificate oi honesty, but that
man is not wanted by the Post Office
Department any n IRE.
years ago" rest ned the inspector,
as he filed his pipe ION one of the old
star routes out in New Mexico hun
dreds of letters obtaining money,
drafts, checks ana other valuables
We're stolen. At Fl sst letters and all
disappeared. but tie thieves changed
their mode of opee,ation and simply
stole the contents. resealing the letters
and sending them en-. AS letters pass
through the hands of many clerks it
is always difficult 20 locate the thief.
Months of faithful work resulted in
nothing being discovered as to the
identity of the thieves, and the rifling
of letters continued.
FINALLY there was happy solution
of the trouble. Ona of the inspectors
procured a quantity of different kinds
of drugs and sen. other inspectors
over the entire rout. with instructions
to make a tour of ooll Investigations.
and while thus erg Iged to place some
of one kind of the .irugs in the mucil-
age bottle at eacn office taking care
to make memora dun which would
show ut what office the drug had been
placed. 1t was It long before Il
registered letter CINE through with
the money gone. The Inspector put
his lips to the seal of the envelope.
tasted the mucila:e. referred to his
book. and at once named the office
at which the partic liar drug had been
placed in the mucilAge. Then a lot of
decOy registered testers went to that
office. and the DISHONEST Postmaster
secured the contents and the inspect
ors secured him. This. | think. was
one of the clevercat pieces of work
ever done by the department. The in
spector who put il .nto execution was
a fine chemist and anew exactly what
kind of drugs to CO..
There are but two successful ways
to catch a Post Office thief-constant
watching and desoy letters. With
these and patience the game will be
landed, although VI often requires
months and SOMEONE'S years. 1t is
one of the most ami Dying and difficult
lines of detective work n man ever
engaged in and acquires the most
earnest application Not a single cir
cumstance or detail must he overlook
ed Sometimes luci helps us out of
our difficulties. | remember once in a
city not very far from Washington
things We're in a 'arful state in the
distribution division of the office. II
appeared as thougJ we would never
catch the fellow who was making
away with valuable letters. One day
there came up teri1ic rain and with
this came a happy thought to the in
spector. He carried a bucket of water
into the loft and tb rev it on the over
head plastering st over the dis
tributers. Natural leak was sprung
nd workman. W no was taken into
ne confidence of the inspector, was
sent into the loft 10 make an inveSti-
CATION. Accidentally on purpose his
foot went through the wet plastcring,
leaving hole.
"Of course, to repair this it would
have been necessary 10 do the work
from the distribution room, and. as
this was done the clerks went ahead
with their work, While the inspector
looked down at their every movement
from the supposed accidentally made
hole Finally he WIS rewarded by see
ing one of the oldeet employees in the
office slipping letters in his pocket.
Seeing he was caught dead to rights,
the man confessed everything. In
court he attemptoc no defence. save
TO say that he had been dealing in
futures, had had ais wings severely
clipped, and stole 81 even up.
"A German namei Klamath gave the
inspectors a world of trouble in the
same city Thousa Ids of letter, We're
missed, AMI goodnsss only knows how
much money stolen. 1t was a case
which puzzled tn department. and
after weeks of thu closest investiga-
ton it was decided that the crooked
work was not done in the Post Office.
Theu an outside campaign was be.
gun. and Klamath was arrested while
stealing letters fro n One of the street
boxes. He did not have a key, but
used a wire for eX lracting the letters.
His operations Were confined to boxes
in the business sections, and he admit
ted that he had stolen not less than
10000 letters before he was caught
The amount of IN oney he got could
no hnt no