The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-07
THIEVES Tunnel A
WAY TO RICH SPOIL
Gold Bricks Worth S34O, 600
Stolen.
BORED INTO STRONG ROOM
A Selby Smelling Employe Thought
He Heard Ghost.
BORED INTO STRONG ROOM
TWAS THE ROBBERS REMOVING GOLD
They First Sunk a Shaft and Then Tunneled
Under the Vaults Floor. An tIabor-
ate Plan and Work Of
(By Associated Press.)

Vallejo. Cal, August Gold bricks,
last night from the Selby Smelling Works.
The robbers evidently had been working
on the lob for two or three months. They
had dug a tunnel from outside the house,
beginning with a shaft about three feet
deep. Thence they worked underneath
the vault and striking upwards, bored a
hole in the strong room floor. The hole
was shaped like the manhole of boiler.
Part of the holes were bored two months
go, it is thought, and the last one was
completed during the night. Through
that hole they took the gold bricks and
carried them to a bank Mar the mouth
of the tunnel east of the works. where
they were evidently placed in boat. In
their hurry the robbers left two of the
bricks on the bank.
During the night one OF the workmen
reported to one of his fellows that he
heard a noise in the strong room and
declared it was a ghost. The others
ridiculed him for his superstition, but no
investigation was made to see what
caused the noise.
The entrance to the tunnel was COW
cred with a frame. over which the en-
ployees of the smelter passed rapidly
every day, but no one seemed to notice
anything out of the way. Sheriff Veale.
of Contracosta county, his deputies and
Chief of Police Sanford, of Vallejo have
been notified and are now at the works.
The police of San Francisco and all the
bay cities are at work on the case, but
so far there is not the slightest clue to
the robbers. The work was that OF
skilled men and their elaborate plans
were carried out without a hitch. They
got all the bullion in the vault, leaving
behind only the two bricks which were
dropped on the shore. Only one days
accumulation of refined gold was kept at
the works. Yesterdays run was unusu-
ally heavy and the gold was to have
been shipped back to San Francisco to-
day.
The tunnel that the robbers excavated
was about three feet in diameter. and
gave them plenty of room in which to
work. 1t is supposed the dirt from the
tunnel was taken out at night and
dropped in the bay. First reports stated
that the tunnel was two to three hundred
feet long, but according to late advices
it is only about ten feet in length. The
shaft was started close to the wall and
was sunk beow the foundation. Thence
it was only short distance under the
floor of the vault. 1t is thought the
men who committed the robbery took their
plunder away in a launch and made of
directly for San Francisco. There are
plenty of places, however, to which they
may have gone-either up the Sacramento
river or to tEs shores of any of the nu-
merous bays.
The following is ist of the property
stolen:
Four fine gold bricks, all numbered ant
containing as follows:
No. 1,236--, 100 ounces and a fraction
No. /, ,237-3,300 ounces.
No ,238-1 ,123 ounces and q fraction.
No. 1,239-1,0 ,037 ounces and a fraction
Also 10000 ounces of gold in various
shapes and a little silver. The gold il
the bricks is worth 500 an ounce