The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-08-21
GIGANTIC MAIL
ROBBERY.
$4,000 Stolen From Train
on Chicago, Burlington
& Quincy Road.
MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR
Three Sacks Disappear in Transit Be-
tween Denver and Oxford, Neb.-
No One Knows About it.

Lincoln Neb, August 20.-Three reg
istered mail sacks. containing currency
and negotiable paper aggregating al
most $3.50 600, were stolen from a Chi
cago, Burlington & Quincy mail car
between Denver and oxford, Neb.. sun
day morning.
No violence was resorted to by tho
thief, the mail pouches being taken
while the clerks slept in the car. The
point at which the robbery was COM
mitted is not known. but is thought
TO have been between Akron, Cold
and oxford.
The theft is the most mysterious
with which the train officials or gov
eminent secret service men have had
to cope in many years. They have
added TO the mystery by reticence con
corning details known to them. The
robbery was not admitted by them I'M
til today.
Mail Sacks Are Missing.
The train, known as No. 2, left Den
yer at p. m. and arrived in Oxford
at 1925 in the morning. 1t is a through
train via Omaha to Chicago, which it
reached at a. m. this morning. When
it left Denver the mall car contained
seven registered mail sacks destined
for Omaha and Chicago. At Oxford
the clerks discovered that but four
were in the car The train was held
for many minutes while a search was
made and kilograms were sent to rail-
way and postal officials. 1t was finally
determined that nothing could be done
at the time, and the train proceeded
TO Omaha, where postal and railway
detectives boarded it and started
exhaustive investigation
The clerks admitted that they had
gone to sleep shortly after the train
passed Akron. 112 miles from Denver.
Their work of asserting the ordinary
mail had been completed. and they had
taken no especial precautions to guard
the mail sacks
Steal While Clerks Sleep.
The train makes bat six stops in the
1877 miles between Akron and Oxford
and the clerks were not awakened.
When they prepared to take on some
mail at Oxford they discovered the
loss of the three sacks. They have no
theory of the robbery save that some
one crept into the car and hurled the
sacks out. dropping off the train at the
next station. Detectives of the railway
The clerks declared that the sacks had
been properly transferred and receipted
for at Denver and that there was no
possibility OF a clerical error in the
failure to account for the pouches.
The postal authorities also began a
hasty checking up of the contents of
the missing sacks, which indicated
their value to be S250.000
Robbery Planned In Denver.
One of the sacks was almost empty.
but the others are intimated to have
contained exceptionally large inclos
ures of currency and negotiable paper.
This fact was taken by postal detect
ives to indicate that postoffice officials
or employees had knowledge of the
theft 1t is believed that the robbery
was planned in Denver and the thief
boarded the train there and entered the
mail car at the earliest opportunity.
They believe that elaborate plans
for an escape with the bulky sacks of
mail had not been made. and every
available man has been hurried into the
district along the railway line to in
tereept the thief or thieves.