The Topeka state journal., 1908-11-18
NO CLUE is FOUND
Mail Pouch Robbery Mystery
Grows Deeper.
Police Grasping at StraWs IN
Their Investigations.
SAW MAN RUNNING.
Depot Wafehman Followed But
Lost Sight of Him.
Only an Expert Could Have
Picked Out Right Sack

There is still no e1ew of the identity
of the mail pouch thief who made way
with sack of registered mail at the
Rock Island depot in this city early
Sunday morning or the whereabouts
of the missing sack and its contents.
The officials, however, confidently ex-
pect to yet unravel the mystery.
report that some OF the letters
from the missing sack had been found
opened in the railway yards is news to
the Rock Island detective force.
"Only a very clever crook could
have made the haul said a Rock Is
land official in speaking of the affair
this morning. He must have had in
side information about this particular
sack of registered mail, Besides the
fact that it was placed inside of an
ordinary letter mail pouch, not even
the employees at the Rock Island de-
pot knew that this registered mail
sack was now routed over the Rock
Island to Topeka. 1t had always been
sent by the Santa Fe up to the time
of the change in the 1atter's time card
about a month ago.
There is little doubt that some To-
cal crook is connected with this theft.
It was a bold and clever piece of
work. There were two officers on the
depot platform Sunday morning when
the 1 o'clock train pulled in, a city
policeman and a railroad officer. The
mail sacks are thrown on truck in
stead of the depot platform, as was
published. One of the depot employees
usually help Battles, the One-legged
mail carrier, push the truck up to his
wagon and load up the mail.
'On Sunday morning this man Bat
ties was asleep in one of the switch
shanties on Jackson street, and not in
the depot waiting room as was first
stated. He did not come out of the
how ~ fng- Ea q hl n
out. He had his wagon backed up at
the west end of the depot platform on
Jackson street, about 80 feet from the
doors of the mail car at the point
where the mail is dumped on to the
truck.
when the train pulls out the Rock
Island officer on duty at the depot
nights usually runs west in the yards
to see that no buns climb aboard the
moving tran. On the Sunday morning
of the robbery the officer left the plat
form and went west before the train
pulled out. This would have given the
thief his opportunity. When the officer
was coming back toward the depot
Sunday morning he saw man dodge
across the tracks and run behind some
shacks. The officer gave chase, but
careful search of the yards and behind
these shanties revealed no one. This
man could have easily been the mail
sack robber."
While the responsibility for the loss
OF the registered I1dAl pOuCH QOSS AAOI
rest On the railroad, yet the latter's Of
fcials are leaving nothing -Hndone to
catch the thief and are cooperating in
every way possible with the postal au-
thorities.
AS yet there have been no complaints |
made at the local office of loss from the |
stolen sack. These complaints would |
likely be made first to the Kansas City |
office from where the sack was sent |
The government is liable for loss of |
each piece of registered mail up to the |
sum of $25. over this amount the |
postal authorities decline responsibility. |
That the mail sack thief was a local |
man and that he had kept close watch |
on the manner of transporting the mail |
from the car to the mail wagon for |
many nights there is no doubt. He |
also must have been thoroughly famil- |
lar with the railroad yards and had |
some place in Topeka, where he could |
go under cover. That he was an ex-
pert mail sack thief goes without say
ing when he could so quickly pick out |
the registered mail pouch concealed as
1t was in an ordinary mail sack.