The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-29
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= rOODer1eS are an lnIIeQuent
0 occurrence in Indianapolis. but
when one is pulled off, by a
1R44sI professional hotel thief it gen.
orally amounts TO something, and
the man who does the work is sseldom
caught owing to the fact that he leaves
town soon as he makes his haul. To
the professional who is engaged in this
business and Understands the workings of
the hotels. there is no easier place To rob
than a hotel. and the larger the hosiery
the easier it is to accomplish a robbery.
OF course Indianapolis is not troubled
with hotel thieves like the larger cities
because the hotels here are not overly
crowded unless some convention or en-
campment Is going on. and under ordinary
circumstances the hotel employees are able
10 keep track OF the guests of the house.
When, however. a hotel becomes crowded
this Is a difficult matter, and very often
the thieves get an opportunity to work and
generally make the most of it,
While In majority Of instances the hotel
thieves who operate in this city wait for
some large gathering before commencing
operations, there have been several in
stances where hotels have been robbed by
professional thieves and there was nothing
out, of the ordinary occurring in the city at
the time.
An instance of this kind was the robbery
OF Mayor Holtzmans apartments at the
Claypool. This occurred Sept. IS of last
year. The thief who did this work was
well repaid for his trouble, for the mayor
was relieved of quite number of dia-
monds, besides two watches and other
oil Of If h
value. not only from the money standpoint
but because some of the things taken were
keepsakes of the mayor and his wife, and
he would not have parted with them for
any sum of money.
The local detectives were called in and in
vestigated the case, and though the mayor
of the city had been robbed, no one was ar
rested for the crime. There was no doubt in
the minds of the police that the work was
done by professional and that he left the
city as soon as he robbed the mayor
rooms.
The strange feature of this robbery was
the fact that the mayor and his wife were
In room adjoining the one that the thief
entered and were within a few feet of him
all the time that he was searching for
plumber The robbery occurred early in the
evening and 1t has always been question
whether or not the door leading from the
apartment into the hall was unlocked, but
the general impression is that it was not
ana THIS made IL necessary for the
thief to open it that he took additional
chances of disturbing the occupants of the
room.
Detectives have made all kinds sur
misses about this robbery, but il is generally
thought among them that the thief was
merely prowling around the hotel corri-
doris. and on trying the door to the mayor S
room, found Ii open and went in. Others,
however. contend that it a premedi-
tated robbery and that the thief had been
watching for an opportunity probably for
several days. and when he tried the door
and found il was not locked, he took the
chances OF entering and getting away with
the goods. which he did very successfully.
HOTEL MEN CAREFUL.
Many people might think that there Is
robberies of this kind occur within their
establishments. The hotel proprietors are not
careless about such things, and every hos
telry in this city employs night watchmen
who patrol the corridors regularly and
watch very closely for suspicious charac-
tiers, but the man who makes the robbing
of hotels business is also pretty we'll up
on the game and makes study of this kind
of work also
Hotels are large buildings with numerous
halls and corridors extending all over them.
With large number of strange guests in
the house it is a difficult matter for the
and very often the hotel thief keeps out of
the way of all the employees of the house
and also of the police. The robber can
sneak upstairs and dodge into the dark
places and in this way keep out of the
way Of the watchmen. He will loiter