Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-30
BuRGLARlzE BIG STORE

Crack,men Make Attempt to Blow
Up Safe--.No Cash or VaIu.
abIes Missing.
The safe In the general merchandise
store OF the Page.Lindquist company
was partly wrecked by two cracksmen
early yesterday morning. The outer
doors OF the safe were blown open,
but as the burglars did not succeed in
forcing the inner doors, they secu, ed
no money. The safe contained about
500 In cash and al Of the comp any g
books, some Of which were slightly
damaged by pieces of steel and iron.
The cash drawer was not touched and
no goods are missing. No trace has
been found of the perpetrators OF the
deed.
The details Of the aff air sre, of
course, more or less Obscure, but the
main fac:s seem to be as follows: ;.
The safe blowers gained IN entrance
to the warehouse In the rear part of
the store building by smashing win
dow pane and raising the lower sash
In doing this one of them evidently
cut hand or flnger, as blood stains
we're found on both sides of the win
dow sill. Having entered the ware.
house they broke open the door lead
ing into the store and commenced their
work on the safe. The dial was chis.
eled off, after which they tried to force
the plnion into the safe with q chisel
. Had they succeeded in doing this the
entire combination would have fal en-
down and no explosive agents would
have been necessary. They did not
succeed in forcing the safe in this
manner, however, and so nitro -gly-
cerine was put Into use. Having
soaped the cracks between and at the
bottom OF the outer doors to prevent
the nltro-glyceriue fr> m leaking out
they poured some of that dangerous
explosive into the crevice, planted ano
lighted the fuse and with q crash the
heavy steel doors flew open. The ex.
pl,sion must have been quite violent,
for the lower part of the doors was
bent completely out OF shape ar d pie
ces OF steel, cast iron, soap and plast.
erirg we're scattered all over the dry
goods department.. Some steel splint.
ers lodged in hetboxes on shelves di
rectly opposite the safe and others
were found firmly planted in the cell.
ing. Finding that there was another
pair OF the doors which had to be
opened before they could secure the
cash they were after, the cracksmen
proce eded to treat these In the same
manner as they had treated the frst
pair. But this time they failed. The
charge WAS not heavy enough, for
when tie explosion vas over the doors
were still locked. At this juncture the
nightly visitors must have become
discouraged, for they departed with
out making any further attempts
They were evidently very much in q
hurry about getting away from the
store, for three round chisels, about
four inches long and one medium
sized, soap and grease.covered mitten
were left behind. Some of the papers
ly3ng on the desk near the safe bore
bloody hoger prints and on one wae
found q clean impress of thumb.
1t WAS 1T first supposed that the
burglary was committed about two
O'Clock IN tho morning. About halt
IN hour later Mrs. Gorwell, who
resides on Fifth street, saw two men
walking past the house. 1t looked as
If one of them was Injured, for he was
assisted by his comrade and they were
both hurrying southwark. These two
were at first thought to have been the
guilty parties, but later developments
seem to indicate that the work was
done between 4 and 4:30 q. m. Mr.
and Mrs. Reese, who live in the house
directly north west of the warehouse,
Say that about that time they hearo
some noise In the store but At first
they thought 1t was some of the en-.
ployes OF the firm who were doing
sume work preparatory to opening up
the store for the day. They alsU
heard two explosions and though,
they were about 10 or Is m nutes
apart John 1versun, who sleps in
the house ,mmeliately adjoining the
stvre 10 he north, says tnat he WI.
awakeueo by The first exp 0sion and
that abuu. 10 minutes later he heard
. secoad one. He also says that the
T. me ut which the explosion occurred
was between aud 4:30.
How tne burglars got away from th<
city NJ one knows, but the time u
which the WORK Was done and tht
seeming hurry with which they lef
their uufiuish. d task would lead on,
to suppose that they wanted TO- boare
the ear4y m0Enlng train which arrived
here about 4:25 J I sterdsy morning.
The Safe wnIcn 30 brxvely refused
to give up ito contents was manufac
tureu by the Hsli Luck and Safe Co
OF CtnclDnatsi, OHIO, and was pur
chased BY Dale & Rose about a
years aeo. II was valued at abou
3l5O. Although only partly demolish
ed it wouid be q d,fllcul. task to pu
II Ia . eerviceable condition and tht'
Wlll probably not be attempted.
Who the cracksmen are, ls and vii
no doubt remain . mystery, at less
for s0nna time. Some AueplclOU!