Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-28
POSTAL ROBBERS
WERE AMATEURS
OPENED SAFE WITH SLEDGE
HAMMER
Rifed Registered Mail Of Glendale
Postofflce and Then stole Horse
with Which They Made
Their Escape

That the robbing of the postofice
at Glendale and the rifling of the safe
and registered mail there early Thurs
day morning was the work of anna
teurs is the belief of officers of the
sheriff's department, who spent a day
of fruitless investigation, yesterday in
hope of obtaining some clew to the
identity OF the men.
Late yesterday afternoon the horse
and buggy. property of DR.. Ray Chase
of Monrovia. from whom the robbers
took It, were found by the officers at
the city pound.
Early yesterday morning, about two
or three hours after the robbery was
supposed to have occurred, woman
living on Buena Vista street noticed
man drive up in a buggy. He looked
about and stopped near the intersec-
tion of Buena Vista street and sun
set boulevard and then he alighted.
tied the horse to a telegraph pole and
turning, ran away as fast as possible.
The suspicious actions of the man
caused the woman to pay particular
attention to the incident and when at
Z O'Clock the horse was still standing
where it had been tied she telephoned
for the pound master.
Horse Driven Hard
The horse was a bronco stolen from
the Chase barns by the robbers, ard
from its condition it must have been
driven hard by the men who did the
work 1t is thought that one of them
got out of the buggy at some spot
in East Los Angeles, leaving his part
ner to drive the buggy some distance
further and then desert it. The man,
after leaving the vehicle. ran back in
the direction from which he had come.
How the robbers managed to get
Tic
covery is puzzling to the officers. When
Deputy Sheriff Joe Sepulveda took up
the Investigation yesterday he found
that the safe at the Glendale post
office. a cheap iron affair with single
door had been chiseled open with
cold chisel and sledge hammer The
noise attendant on the battering and
wrecking of the safe must have been
unusually loud, but none of the res
idents of the neighborhood heard any
thing of it.
The robbers. it is thought went to
Glendale on one of the late cars and
stayed out in the country until the
city was asleep.
A cold chisel, a small hammer and
a sledge hammer were secured from
a blacksmith shop, which the robbers
rifed, and entrance was obtained to
the postoffice by prying open one of
the rear windows.
once in and the robbers lost no time
in getting to their work They pounded
and battered the safe about until 1t was
a chunk of scrap iron, after which they
managed to pry it open and get at the
money about $400, and about half as
much in stamps 1t is thought that
about $1,000 worth of property was Sc
cured from the registered mail, which
was rihed The mail was mostly
Christmas presents, being held for
countrymen who had not called for
them.
Rifle Registered Mail
The robbers. after securing the mon
ey, carried the registered mail back
to the blacksmith shop where they
rifled it, Several valuable pieces of
jewelry were secured from the mail,
the registration slips placing the value
at about $1,000. All manner of Christ
mas gifts. including a dozen bottles of
perfume, several boxes of candy, more
than fifty neckties, all in separate
packages, several packages of violet
sachet, an entire outfit of baby clothes
and many other things were left in the
blacksmith shop by the robbers, who
did not find articles of apparel worth
keeping When the blacksmith made
his appearance yesterday morning he
found his forge filled with perfume and
neckties and other things scattered
about the shop.
After rihing the mail the men pro-
ceeded to Dr. Chases home and stole
his horse and buggy It was at that
place that the officers received the in
timation that there We're two men at
work on the robbery. The horse is a
bronco and put up stubborn resis-
tance against being harnessed at the
early hour of the morning, and the
footprints of various shapes about the
place where the performance occurred
showed that two men were interested
in the work.
Federal officers will take up the case
today and it is thought that within
the next few days they will have
landed their men, since it was reported
yesterday that a secret clew had been
received which might be of great i'm
portance.
"Since they've reduced the postage
n M naa