The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1908-11-05
pes Molnes Branch Of keokuk Store
is PIundered Of Ostrich PIumes
Worth One Thousand
Dollars.
A MYSTERIOUS ROBBERY
Millinery store Robbed and Several
Theories Are Advanced as
to How It Was
Done.

The Des Moines store of M. Stern
& Son, has been robbed of a number
of ostrich plumes valued at about
$1,000 and there seems to be consid.
cradle mystery about the theft. The
following from this mornings Regis.
ter-Leader, tells of the robbery:
Ostrich plumes to the value of be.
tween $500 and $1,000 have been stol.
en- from the wholesale millinery store
of NJ. Stern & Son, 316-31S West Court
avenue.
The theft is supposed to have occur
red sometime between Saturday night
and Monday morning, when the loss
was discovered on opening the store
for business, but every effort has been
made to keep the matter secret while
the detective department has been
working upon the case
The theft is one of the most battling
ever recorded in the history of Des
Moines. Whether employees of the mil
linery firm perpetrated the seal or
outside parties, is the point he de-
tectives are now working on. 1t was
because of this uncertainty that the
matter was attempted to be kept
quiet. The managers of the store are
confident that none of its employees
is implicated
Door is Found Open.
On Saturday night at 1920 o'clock
Charles Miller merchant policeman.
discovered the rear door of the whole
sale house standing ajar. Believing
that, through some oversight, the door
had not been locked, Miller himself
fastened it and did not think anything
more of the occurrence until Monday
when his attention was called to the
loss of the goods.
Shortly after o'clock Monday
morning the loss of number of boxes
of ostrich plumes was reported to Ike
Stern, general manager. At once he
concluded that the store had been rob
bed and the matter was reported to
Chief tombstone, who detailed Detec-
tives McKercher, jackson and Del
mege on the case No clue whatever
could be found and the officers are as
much in the dark concerning the rob-
berry as when it was first reported.
The theory advanced by Mr.. Stern,
which is also substantiated by Chief
OF Detectives Johnston, is that who.
ever pulled off the steal did so early
Saturday evening between dark and
1890 o'clock, when the back door was
found open by Watchman Miller.
The plumes, nearly hundred in
number. made a bulky lot and just
how the thief or thieves could have
gotten away with them is not known.
A rig of some kind might have been
waiting In the rear to carry the
plumes to a waiting place. On the
other hand if the thieving was a sys-
tematic scheme of robbery by some
one in the employ of the firm it
might have been carried on for weeks
but this is not thought likely as the
goods would have been missed before
Monday when 1T became certain that
large lot of the plumes had been
taken
The look on the rear door shows no
rark of violence. 1t was either open
ed with a. pass key or left unlocked
from the inside. The fact that the
door is bolted from the inside shows
conclusively that it wa not opened
from the outside.
Hide in the store.
One theory advanced is tnat some
one may have secreted himself In the
store and opened the rear door after
me clerks and Office force had left for
the day.
Merchant Officer Miller, whose duty