Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-07
PLUCKY WOMAN
SEIzES BURGLAR
RECEIVERS ARTICLES STOLEN
BY THIEF
Mrs. Mabel Williams Displays No Fear
When She Finds Intruder
Ransaoking Her
Room

How many Los Angeles girls upon
seeing a burglar rausacling their
rooms would grapple with the intruder
and force him to give UP the property
he had stolen?
This is what Mrs. Mabel Williams
waitress employed by the West
minister hotel, did when confronted
with such q situation Friday night
Mrs Williams went on duty at the
Westminster hotel at . O'Clock Fri
day. At about o'clock she happened
to notice that her room in the lodging
house at 1913 East Fourth street was
illuminated and she could see the fig
urc Of a man silhoucttcd against the
drawn curtains.
Instantly Mrs. Williams ran into the
house, dashed up the stairs and "a sec
ond later was pounding for admittanCc
TO her room. Tho thief had locked the
door on the inside and was seemingly
about to open the trunk belonging to
Mrs. Williams when he was discovered
"Open the door, right away" said
Mrs. Williams loudly, and the burglar
IN the room gathered everything he
could into a small hand satchcl be
longing to the waitress.
GrappIes With Burglar
The intruder violently pushed open
plucky little woman. She seized him
by the arm cnd snatched her hand
bag from his grasp. Then she shouted
for help and, with an oath, the burg
lar thrust her against the wall and
fled down the hall.
one of the dodgers of the house at
tempted to stop the fleeing thief, but
as the burglar was abreast of the
would-be captor he drew a revolver
and ran out of the door without any
more resistance being made to his de-
parture.
Tells Of Affair
Mrs Williams story Of the affair is
AS follows: when | left my room at
123 East Fourth street Friday evening
shortly before o'clock, / was very
careful to turn out the light. ! always
try to be certain that my light is
turned out when / leave my room, but
Friday night, for some reason, / was
even more careful than usual.
II was out in the kitcen of the West
minister hotel when / happened to look
out of the window up at my room.
That was at ten minutes after six
o'clock. AS soon as | looked ] noticed
the light was burning. ] thought that
was queer, but / was not especially
alarmed. l stood looking up at the
window for few minutes and soon |
saw the shadow Of "a man thrown on
the curtain.
THAT made me very curious and |
ran over to my room to see what was
doing there. / ran up the stairs and
attempted TO get into my room but
the door was locked and l could still
see the light burning.
Burglar Dashes Out
II yelled at the top of my voice, Let
me in. This is my room. What are
you doing here" Just as | finished
screaming a man quickly opened the
door and tried to run past me.
II am not so big, but I made him
stop. He had my little hand satchel
in his hand and it was packed full to
overflowing with my possessions. /
grabbed the satchel and said: No you
don't. Give me my satchel'
Then he passed over the bag and
I let go of him, although he had to
hit me TO make me do it. Then !
screamed and one of the dodgers came
into the hall and tried to stop the man.
But as soon as the burglar pulled out
a big revolver, the lodger lost his am
bition to catch the thief and the burg
lar ran out of the house.
HE got nothing but a little change,
which was lying on my dresser. Aside
from that all he got was experience
I think I got off lucky, and / am real
glad that l was as fortunate as l was"