The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-16
PIER LOOrEUS GOT 100000.
ONI ~ fHTW FEILSOF ROBHgRi
~ uORGlN IINF.
tierL ,hsrarr and Onr Ne Mare Trurh men
In twssplracS 0'hrt steamship 'oW.
panies tiso tIrtims t6'aI VI PLUMBER
tIkrtI Ia t3rHw ft,e arrested,

The District Attorneys orire has ob.
IN n~l 4 tIll cpnfession from Ieraons in.
plicated IN w. thefts ~ silk goods and
woullen- from the Morgan Line steam
ahip pier assistant District Attorney
Murphy. who - handling the o,s', -aid
yesterday that the thefs from that CUn-
pany amount - At least $1,000,
and that they may foot up to as
much a. eiUU UU1 He has information
also thar other steamship companies have
been hit. The District Attorneys Office
refused Ia -tv anything about the ca-e
until after the facts had / eel obtai ned
from other sources.
According to the confession. the goods
were stolen through the COLLISION az truck
drivers with u clerk and AZ least one other
employee at the Morgan Line pier. The
truck drivers or perhaps it was only one
Of them would get the goods from the
shipper, taking the usual bill Of lading and
a duplicate Then the driver would hurry
around TO a fence maintained by the gang,
leave the goods and proceed to the pier.
At the pier he would deliver the bill Of
lading and a duplicate to a checker who
was in ON the game. The checker would
" N. DOl VI DlilN anu dIIlA iHS NiRtlhl uTt 10 the
original one. That bill would he sent up
stairs to the company's office and the dupli-
cate would Toe passed to the driver. to be re-
turned to the shipper. The clerk upstairs
VINO handl the original bill of lading
would, il is said, erase the name Of the
checker" and substitute that Of some
other employee.
This left the company entirely sup in the
air" when complaints began TO come in and
attempts were made to trace the packages
by means Of the records, and checker after
checker was discharged on suspicion.
Five men are now under arrest in con-
nection with the thefts. They are Abraham
Davis, IA clothing dealer of ll9 Canal street;
James O'Brien, a clerk at the Morgan Linz
pier; Adrian +. Post OF North Bergen, n. j.;
Frederick Palm of 6j7 Wythe avenue.
Brooklyn. and Daniel Stratton Of 464 West
Seventeenth street. The last three are
truck DIR vers and are charged with com
plicity. They were arrested on Monday
afternoon and were held yesterday in the
Tombs police court in $40, 600 bail. They
we're then taken to the District Attorneys
office and questioned by MIR, Murphy.
II is supposed that the confession was
obtained from one Of them, although the
Assistant District Attorney refused to
say that it was. Davis and O'Brien were
arrested las, saturday, The former il
charged with being the receiver of stolen
ROOIS ana liS l"'ltl WIN gerry TT!eI
had charge 81 the bills of lading in thu
Morgan line office at the pier. 1t was said
that the confession implicated all under
arrest.
The Morgan Line officials had any amount
Of trouble in running the case down, AS
far back as February IS they received a
complaint from a downtown silk concern
that Il case of goods, valued at several
thousand dollars. had been delivered at
the pier in September for shipment to a
customer in the South but had never been
received by him. The Morgan Line people
dug out their old records. including the
bill OF ladiug, and sent out all sorts Of traoers.
They could get no tidings OF the package
after it had been receipted for at the pier.
They called NJ the clerk whose name
was on the original bill of lading, but he
disclaimed al! knowledge If the matter.
Never th less, they dischaI ged him. Then
other complaints began to come in thick
and fast Other checkers who were
under suspicion because their ma mes were
on the bills were discha rged. but still the
trouble continued. The stea mship people
ca lied In some private detectives who tool
jobs as checkers, but they didn't discover
the game.
Then Detective Sergeants Downing and
Diefenthaler from the Central Office went
down to the pier. One day the latter
noticed that the name Of a checker on one
OF the bills had been erased and another
ma mo substituted. Then the matter was
taken TO the District Attorneys office and
the arrest Of D. wis and O'Brien soon fol-
lowa1