Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-08-24
WERE AT WORK
ON ORION SAFE
Bold Robbers Are Frightened
Before Strong Box Is Crack
ed at Postoffice.
ALARMED BY TELEPHONE
= j. W. Wilson, Father of Postmaster,
Secs Light i'm Office and Starts
Investigation.

A bold attempt 10 burglarize the
postofice al Orion, H.. was made las.
night or early this morning, but It
failed because the cracksmen were
scared away from the JOB before It
had been completed The police OF
this city were called upon by the au
thorities at Orion 10 aid in running
down the burglars. and several of th2
officers spent the greater part OF tie
carly morning hovus in securing tho
country in the vicinity of Orion. but
all 10 no purpose as the robbers hal
made good their escape
Robbers Are Frightened.
Postmaster George Wilson owes =;
To his father. J. Henry Wilson. thaf
the robbery was prevented, The
elder Mr. Wilson resides directly
across the street from the postohice.
and he can see the Office from the
window IN his room. He awolle about
. o'clock this morning and was aston
ixhed 10 see a light in the postof1ice
across the stree, His suspicious were
aroused at once as he knew no reason
why his son should be at the post
Office at such an hour IN The morning.
He accordingly made haste 10 awaken
the hired girl and she got in cOmmnnl-
cation with the pos master by means
OF the telephone. Within few min
utes afterwards. however. the lights
in the postofice were guishei,
and when Postmaster Wilson and
others arrived on the scene the rob,
bers were not to be seen. They had
evidently had one OF their number sta
toned near the telephone exchange
and when the bell commenced ringing
it told them plainly that someone had
discovered them and that it was time
for them to get away if they had any
hopes of so doing
Needed Little More Time.
The robbers had broken into the
postoffice and had already started the
work of cracking the strong box The
combination dial had been broken off
and preparations made for blowing
open the outer door to the safe The
crack around the door had been closed
with soap and the nitro-glycerine was
found in a vessel on the floor all ready
for being poured into the crack They
were discovered just in the nick OF
time. as a few minutes more would
have seen the safe demolished AMI
the contents gone
This attempt coming right on the
heels of the cracking OF the safe at the
Hampton bank has caused the police
to believe that regularly organized
gang of cracksmen is at work in this
vicinity. The evidences at the scenes
of both the bold attempts indicate thai
there must be four or five in the gang
at least and that they are adopts al
the business and thorough in their
plans so that catching them at worh
is almost out of the question.
Ruined the Dials.
The burglars demolished the com
bination dials on both the Hampton
and the Orion safes and this left then
in such shape that they could not be
opened even by those who had tn,
right to open them. The result was
that Charles Fiebig and his son, FranI
Fiebig. the safe experts of this city
had to be called upon to open the
safes. The experts put the burglar:
to shame by opening the safes withou
having 10 resort TO explosives. ever
though the dials had been torn off