The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-08-26
MIDNIGHT CRACKsMEN
Blow up Capt. j. w. Miller's
Safe, Secure Money Contents
and EscaDe,

ana Escape.
Capt. j. w. Miller's store was en-
tered after midnight last Friday by
professional cracksmen, who blew
open the safe with nitro-glycerine
and carried away the money draw
ers and contents. Besides the cash
and checks in these drawers there
were many valuable papers, such as
deeds, receipts, notes and other writ
lngs and valuable gold watch be-
longing to Will Miller and which had
descended to him from his grand
father.
So far rs is known the cash loss is
as follows:
Capt. Miller, store and boat money
$l3S.43; school building fund, $1l5.3
Blain SILVER, $l6. Total cash taken
$269.73.
The total of the school building
fund taken from the safe was $l56 30,
but Sal of this amount was in checks.
This fund was raised by popular sub
scriptiOn and represented the balance
of the fund now due as final pay
ment to Mac Maull, the contractor
and builder. 1t is more than likely
that all of the amount except what is
represented i'll the checks is lost. The
money was all collected by DR..
Sprague last week and on Thursday
when he had secured the full amount,
and which he expected to use in
making final payment on Saturday,
he asked permission to deposit it in
Capt. Miller's safe, which was ac-
corded.
The amount lost by Blaine SILVER
was also in the safe as an accommO-
dation.
The robbery was not discovered
until Mr.. Babers came to open the
store in the morning. He found the
double front doors aiar, and thought
that possibly he had turned the lock
at night without closing both doors.
But an examination showed that the
doors had been forced open. The
next thing that caught Mr.. Babers'
eye was the shattered window of the
office. Stepping back to the office he
saw the heavy safe door laying face
down on the floor in front of the safe
and the floor covered with papers.
1t was IL good job of safe cracking.
The single explosion had laid bare all
that was valuable in the cumbersome
safe, and had Jared the safe to one
side so that the casters on the east
end of the safe had rolled off the two
inch plank and onto the floor. One
piece of steel from the broken safe
had shot up at the explosion and gone
through the wooden ceiling. AnOth-
er had splintered the window casing
and still another had knocked the
moulding off the cupboard. Other
pieces had gone through the Office
window and out into the store. The
place looked tough.
Aside from the contents of the safe
the cracksmen went through the
cash register and took the last penny
out of that. There was about five
dollars in change in the register.
News of the robbery soon spread
and all day Saturday people We're
passing in and out of the store to and
from an inspection.
The work was done by professional
cracksmen. II any of them had been
here previous to the robbery no
one can point with certainty to the
man or the time, of his visit. But
they are thought to be the men ar
rested in St. Augustine on Monday
and who were lodged in the Palatka
iail that night. These men have
been operating in other small towns
in the state and while they wtrt at
work here the officers at Palatka
were watching for them.
An account of their dOings will be
found on the local Palatka page of
this paper.
This is the first safe-blowing job
ever performed in Crescent City.