Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1901-10-21
STAMPS WORTH
$74,610 STOLEN
Burglars Had Constructed a Tunnel
Under the Vault Of the Chicago
Post Office.
A REMARKABLE ROBBERY
The Burglars Had Worked Patiently for
Many Days to Reach the Cash Vault
in Which There We're $4,000
But Missed This and Struck
the Stamp Vault.

Chicago, Oct. 21.-Burglars last night
stole $74.610 worth of stamps from the
Chicago postoffice and escaped without
leaving the slightest clew. A tunnel,
which had taken a week or more to
complete, was run from the rear of
the building and hole drilled through
the steel bottom of the wholesale stamp
vault. There We're 81 small holes
around the square plate cut, only six
feet away from the cashiers vault,
which contained over $4,000 in cash.
The latter evidently had been the OBJ
jective point.
The robbers drove up to the south
east corner of the postoffice in a wag
on, the tracks of which could be seen
plainly today. The building is tenn
porary affair, and the men had only
to open little door to admit them
selves under the flooring. To reach the
vault, it was necessary to crawl about
300 feet over odds and ends of boards
which Uttered the way. The route evil
IDENTIFY had been carefully studied, for
the detectives who went under today
without knowledge of locations be-
came lost.
Having secured their plunder, the
robbers loaded it into wagon, drove
across a vacant lot, and turned into
Wabash avenue in front of the Art
building. Of the $74,610 in stamps TAX
en- $4,712 were postage due' stamps,
and $2,260 special delivery stamps. The
convertible stamps amounted to $67,-
1928; but of these $4,S2S were Pan-Amer-
lean stamps of eight and ten cent de-
nomination
F. o. Spaulding, chief clerk of the
wholesale stamp department, discover
ed the robbery when he opened the
vault at 1850 o'clock. The safe had
been locked at 5 p. m. on Saturday.
Spaulding at once notified Postoffice
Inspector Stewart, who at once began
an investigation, assisted by his depu-
ties and squad of detectives from the |
city hall. The inspector said. cit was
the largest stamp robbery ever done in
the history of the postal service in this
oou'- try"
To get to the vault, the men entered
through trap door. A few feet in,
they encountered a brick wall, which |
they dug through. A hundred feet or
so further on, they ran against an
other wall, which they also dug
through. On the way they also en-
countered number Of pipes, and as
the floor is but two feet, and in some |
places three feet, above the ground, |
they tunneled under the pipes. Their |
whole course is plainly marked in this |
way. For light they used dry batter |
les, one of which they left behind. This |
battery and the wagon tracks are the
only clews we have at present.
'"The space under the vault is large |
enough to allow a man to stand up
right and their work must have been
comparatively easy with the drills and
steel saws which they used. The
stamps were arranged in 20 pound bum
dies, and the weight of the load they
carried off must have been 500 pounds.
Evidently, one man handed the pack
ages down to others in waiting below.
AS their progress must have been
slow in carrying even one bundle
through all those tunnels crawling on
all fours; I Judge they worked for
hours getting their booty to the wagon
Evidently, they felt perfectly Sc
cure, though somewhat disappointed
at missing the cashiers vault, where
there were $4,000 in cash and a great
quantity of stamps
Postmaster Frederick 2. Coyne is in
Washington. He is responsible for
the loss until an act of congress frees
him from it. OF stamps stolen, 1,776,OO0
were one cent and 1862, 800 two cents
stamps. They got 15O 81, 3o7 50. and
105 IS stamps.