The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-17


DDS, and instead of taking the letter
entire. opened and took the contents
resealing and forwarding. Inspectors
were sent over the routes, spending
sleepless days and nights, and the
only facts gathered were that the let
ters passed through many hands and
that the thefts did not abate. Men
were watched and Swallowed, but to
no purpose. Finally one of the in
spectors procured at a wholesale drug
house quantity of different kinds of
drugs. which were carefully labelled
and placed in his grip. The inspec-
tor started out on supposed trip
of inspection of the offices along the
routes where the letters were being
stolen. He made an examination of
books and accounts, and while doing
this he managed to slip little of one
OF the drugs In the mucilage bottle,
using different drug for the mucilage
at each office and making memoranda
um which would show just where the
drug was used. He watched results,
and soon a New York merchant pro-
duced letter which had been opened
and rified of large sum of money.
The inspector took the envelope, test
ed and smelled the mucilage, took out
his little book, and In a moment told
just the Office where the letter had
been tempered with. He lost no time
in getting to the Office in the Mexican
Rockies. Decoy letters were started
over the route, and the postmaster
went for them like hungry duck.
The result was that IN two weeks the
inspector had his man in handouts.
There are two successful ways to
catch a postal thief" continued the
inspector. Zone is constant watch.
and the other decoy letters. With
these and a large supply of patience
the game can nearly always be land
ed after a time. 1t often requires
months, and sometimes years, to catch
one of the most annoying and difficult
lines Of detective work a man ever
engaged in, and it requires the most
earnest application. Not a single cir
cumstance or detail must be over
looked or neglected. o course. luck
helps us out sometimes, as was the
case in a certain city where several
inspectors were trying to ascertain
who was stealing hundreds of letters.
Ihere came up heavy rain, which
caused leak in the roof of the build
ing right over the distribution or as
sorting room. A workman was sent
up to look after the damage, and he
managed to kick hole through the
clustering. The superintendent of the
building was asked to let the work of
repairing stop, which, he did, and one
OF the inspectors climbed to the loft,
and from the big hole he could watch
the men at work. He was rewarded
by seeing a clerk slip letter after
letter In his pockets. Hurrying down
from the loft he walked into the room
and arrested the clerk, taking from
his pockets more than dozen letters.
In some of the larger offices tre-
mendously big baskets are used in
the sorting room. An inspector hid
in one of these baskets and succeed
ed in locating slip-it-in-my-pocket
letter thief When the inspector
emerged from his place of hiding inc
clerk fell in a swoon to the floor"
From the investigations made by
the inspection division of the depart
ment it is evident that a large num-
Der of the postoffice burglaries are
committed by ''yeggmen," and in his
annual report Postmaster General
Cortelyou says that he favors a long
er sentence for burglary that involves
the use of envelopes. He wants it
made fifteen years. These "yeggmen"
act like ordinary tramps, and use
whatever tools they cen get hold of
to do their work of breaking into Of
fees. To open safe they use soap
to fill the joints, trickle nitro-glycer-
inc into the doors and set it of with
fuse. If the burglary is successful,
the men divide the cash and sell the
stamps to some fence" in one of the
larger cities. These men carry with
them no telltale tools, and usually
succeeded in making their escape. If
they are caught 1t sometimes involves
desperate and dangerous struggle.
Usually the cases are turned over to
the state courts, as the punishment is
much more severe than that prescrib-
ed by the government.