The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-17
STOLEN.
Registered Mail Sack Disappears
in Topeka.
Last Seen When Dropped O1I
Rock Island Train.
NOT A CLUE is FOUND.
Supposed to Be the Work OF a
professional"
Loss Will Probably Amount to
Thousands.
RObharv COuUtprDaFt of That
NOT A CLUE is FOUND.
Robbery a Counterpart OF That
in Kansas City Last July.

A registered mail pouch from Kansas
City to Topeka via the Rock Island was
stolen at the railroad depot at 1
O'Clock Sunday morning and no def1n-
fte trace of either the thief or the miss
ing mail pouch has since been found
by the Rock Island and city detectives
working on the case. The pouch con-
tanned about 20 pieces of mail. There
is no way of ascertaining the value of
this stolen mail until the senders or
consignees make their complaints. The
contents of the sack may have a value
of Sc, 200 or even a much larger sum.
The postmaster and officials succeeded
until now in keeping the loss a secret
Otto Battles. the mail carrier from the
Rock Island depot. was at his post as
usual Sunday morning. Train No. 1
from Kansas City, due here at O'Clock
was a few minutes late and Battles
took a little snooze in the waiting room,
as it was very cold that morning on
the depot platform. The train was in
when he went outside and approached
the side of the mail car to gather up
the sacks thrown on the platform, as
is the usual custom. When Battles
gathered up his sacks he discovered at
once that there was one missing and
gave the alarm.
There were only a few people on the
depot platform at the time of the train S
arrival AS the registered mail pouch
es are placed inside of regular letter
pouches, the thief must have been
bold and crafty fellow to have secured
the right sack in such a short time and
gotten away with it without being no
ticed. He was likely an old hand at
the job of stealing registered mail.
Special Detective Ben Judkins, of the
Rock Island service is working on the
case, and is assisted by Detective Hut
ton of the city force. Both are expert
enced and skillful officers and are work.
ing day and night on the case. While
extremely reticent about the case, these
officers are inclined to believe that local
crooks had a hand in the job. A night
patrolman was on the depot platform
at the time of the bold robbery of the
registered pouch.
Otto Battles, the mail carrier, has
been engaged in the service for several
years. 1t will be remembered that he
was badly injured some five years ago
in a collision with the patrol wagon
while driving the mail to the depot,
and lost his leg in the accident.
Out of this robbery arises the prob
lem as to liability for the missing mail
pouch. 1t had been delivered by the
railroad company to the government in
the customary manner, and yet was
stolen before it reached the hands of
the mail carrier.
The United States government is
pursuit
postal thieves and will likely in the
end capture the guilty party or parties, |
even if the contents of the sack are not |
recovered.
Valuables or money sent by register |
ed mail are usually in such shape that |
they can easily be negotiated in the |
market. In the case of money or postal |
orders it is different.
Out of the complex circumstances of |
the robbery and the placing of the |
III VaIa icrI7f has Il
that the mail clerk in the car should !
not have trusted a registered pouch to |
the depot platform at night with no
one present to receive or receipt for it. /
The mail wagon used to carry the |
sacks to the poStOffice has iron bars at !
the sides and an iron door at the back |
with a paddock on it. So the sack could /
not have been taken from the wagon |
on the trip to the postoff1ce.
Rodgers Is Reticent.
In speaking today of the robbery, |
Postmaster Rodgers said: 'As the |
mail sack in question had not been de- |
livered to the Topeka office I am not in |
position to say much about it. The |
sack was thrown on the depot platform |
along with a dozen other mail sacks |
and within five minutes the mail car |
rier was loading them into his wagon. |
1 can tell nothing of the value of the |
mail in the missing sack. This will not /
be known until people interested, eth
er as sender or receiver, make their |
complaints of the losses Incurred.
There were about twenty pieces of mail |
in the sack. The registered mail |
pouches are always placed inside of |
common mail sacks
While the officers in charge of the
case did not come out and saw so defin-I
itely, yet they intimated that it was
believed that there was considerable
sum of money in the registered mail
pouch or valuable articles of great val
ue, and that the thief had some kind
of line on the route of the sack and its
time of arrival here, just as in the case
of the Kansas City mail sack robbery
last June. It is believed that local men
did the work, or at least, had a part
in it.
Like Kansas City Robbery.
The Topeka registered mail pouch |
robbery of last Sunday morning is AL
most identical in its details, so far as |
known, with the famous mail pouch |
robbery at the Kansas Citv union
a. negro with Topeka connections is
supposed to have stolen a mail pouch
containing $4,000 and made his es-
cape with it.
The pouch containing the $50 OoO |
arrived in Kansas City on a mail car
and was thrown on to a truck on the
platform and the truck was moved to
building near by used temporarily
as L9stoffice annex. Within half an
hour after its arrival at the depot the
sack was supposed to have been stolen
by = wage who is said to have stepped
on outgoing train unobserved with
the Fouch in his hand and rode three
miles into the country where he left