Waterbury Democrat., 1901-04-09
THE CHIEFS STORY
He Tells About the Coppers
 Watching the Copper.
ALLEYESoNLHNNYA ANDRIGNEY

|
 Some People Are Mean Enough TO | Think That Rigney Knows some
 thing -Rumor Has It That Rigney
 Found the Stolen Copper Before De- tective Cahey Caught On To It4 l More Copper Stolen From Car Last Night.
 I The mystery enveloping the disap- pearance of the five hundred pounds l or copper from the brush on fle Nleri- .ieii road and one may say from under l Ihe eyes of the police that were wafch~ Ing It was not cleared up this nlorIi- I Ing. This morning Chief of Police
 Egan gave the following interview re- ganling the matter
 Last Wednesday q man living fks
 ,iie Merlden road or in that yicini&
 talne 70 the police station wilma bl&
 or copper which he said he had fo11n8 I near where he lives. The bar was l about four feet long and was new t,* l us. Usually copper comes to this cifv
 III bars of about a foot long. This
 one brought here by the man referrA,1 l to was different from that lsed hvs 1 any of the local factories. The only factory in town that used anvthing l like 1t was the Waterbury Manufac- l turing company. I dispatched De- l tecflve Cahey to inquire if copper of the brand brought in was taken from any or the factories and he found there l nad not been any. The next day he made q more minute search at the l Waterbury Manufacturing companys plant. There the men told him they had not missed any copper and said that 1t would be quite difficult matter Tor anyone to steal any But on thinking over the matter they recalled that some bars were missing from the car that brought the last consignnent. In every respect the bar brought here resembles that which the Waterbu1v Manufacturing company uses and that round by the detective and Officer Hickey on the Meriden road Now if the copper had been taken from the c<r. we probably would have heard of if. Randolph S Cloves, where the cof. was broken into. But, as I have saIx ready said this brand differed from that found in the brush
 There were six bars. five laid to@ gether and were covered with leaves; the other was some distance 0paft from the five and was also covered with leaves and brush. Detective Gahey and Officer Hickey remained at the place until about o'clock. Then the detective telephoned in from Ervis E. Wright's place for a man to relieve Hickey and for some refres1i- n1ents Both were sent ont. e
 Later, Officer Claffey relieved the detective
 About o'clock Saturday Sheriff Rigney and James Lunny arrived on the scene. At o'clock the officer on watch was relieved. Rigney had left by that time but Lunny remained, ana Officer Claffey did not show where the copper was to the new men because of Lunny's presence and because he. Lunny, evidently did not know where it was. But one of the men saw if Another relief was made ht 7:40. The retiring men did not show the new them said he saw it. It was easy to see it. Lunny was present then and he remained. At 9 o'clock Officer Byrnes. who was one of the first men on the watch, left with Lunny T11e<, officer saw Lunny take n car The officer went to his home. which is In the vicinity of the trolley terminus.
 About 10 o'clock Lunny returned with Rigney, and when next morning. came another change was made in the guard the copper was found to1have disappeared
 The chief denies that he gave the policemeen orders to get igney or the scene. He is now sorry for this because it was entirely q matter for the police solely. Rignev claims to have discovered the copper Thursdax, the day before the, police found lt. but the chief doubts this because 1f is not characteristic of Rigneg to let anything. such as this, leave his hands until he has seen the last of if < A car load of copper neat the Hi&h- land division depot was broken into last evening and a heavy haul made. Nothing was heard of it ntHthe police station.
 Rigney looked heavy to-day. I4e denied he had any of the doub1v stolen copper on him. He says he will write . s.pome" on the mystery and if the police call him the Wizard of the Nile. he can't blame them; stanza of his '.pome" runs thus: ssWere the Wizard O the Nile I'd copper plate Bryan, McKinleY
 and Mark
 I'd make myself mayor and rebuild
 Noah's ark.
 Rametti I'd send to old Erii's IsIe.
 And on these troubled waters I'd
 pour out some ile. The conpers who coppered this copper
 I'd drop
 Tn the depths of the Indian oceann
 ~11xyr nprn,aINr EsT r,1,rro~v