Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-25

missions he made started the investigators
into renewed activity. Half dozen opera
tives started out and results are expected
in the next twenty-four or forty-eight
hours.
All Under Surveillance.
Every employee of the Office is under sur
veillance day and night, and should one or
more of them prove to be the thief or
thieves, escape will be impossible. All have
reported for work daily since the discovery
was made. Every man, too, is under bond,
but not to any amount near the loot Sc
cured. That the robbery was committed
during working hours is almost certainty.
The plumber could have been concealed in
two vest pockets.
The huge vault Of the subtreasury is con-
structed of many layers of chilled steel
and has a number Of doors which must be
passed before entrance is secured to the
apartment containing the money.
Governed by Time Lock.
The theft of money which had once got
into the vault has been regarded as an i'm
possibility. Each of the three doors is gov
erned by a time lock and cannot be opened
except during business hours. During the
day only the outer of the three doors Is
kept closed but even in business hours the
opening of this door by any one entering
the vault rings an electric bell, so that
should a sneak thief attempt to enter the
vault the whole office force would receive
warning.
William Boldenweck was appointed sub
treasurer on June 20 last. He succeeded
William P. Williams.
Theft is Admitted.
int in, ra IN he
robbery Subtreasurer BoTdenweck admitted
that a theft of $4,000 had been perpe-
trated, but refused to go into details.
1T is true that what l and other govern
ment officials believe to be a gigantic steal
has been perpetrated in the subtreasury,'
he said. 1.-The amount, 1 believe. will be
s113,CO0. At present 1 cannot go into de-
tails as to what work we have done in the
case or what method of procedure Chief
Wiliie, Captain Porter and their men will
pursue. We discovered the shortage last
Wednesday when the books of the SUBJ
treasury were balanced for the day. There
is a possibility that the shortage is due to
an error of a book, but am inclined to be-
lieve that a robbery has been committed.
The money was in large denominations, as
far as 1 have learned, currency bills of
81 600, 5000 and $4,000 each'
Captain Porter was very reluctant to say
anything in regard to the robbery. AT
present 1 cannot say anything more of the
affair than that it was reported to me last
Wednesday, he said. ut would not be
proper for me to go into details of the case
or what We are doing in the way of inves-
tigation."
Did Not Reach Vaults.
Subtreasurer Boldenweck declared later
in the day that it had been definitely de-
termined just where the shortage occurred,
but he declined to say to where it had been
traced. He declared himself positive, how
ever, that the money had never reached
the vaults. He said that the only reason
for believing that the stolen money had
been in bills of large denomination was
that it would have been impossible for any,
body to have taken $4,000 from the office
in small bills and escaped detection, but
that package of $3.50 in 81 900 bills
could have been carried about the person
easily without exciting suspicion