The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-23
Series of Daring Robberies Within the Last Month, and Thousands of Silver
 ware and Jewels
 Taken Away Private Detectives Working to no Avail to Apprehend A u t o m obilis ts Who Make Daring descents Upon Homes of
 Wealth
Charles E. Bedford Offers $500 Reward for Convic- tion of Men Who Nearly Killed Members of His Household With Illumin- ating Gas.

DOZSuS OI pTlZG QOSS, HaDIlduIS of the extensive kennels of the veal thy residents of the Greens Farms district, range about the big estates of the Standard Oil colony these nights to protect the much alarmed residents from the desperate burglars who early Saturday, while footing the home of Charles B. Bedford, manag- CT of the marine oil department of the Standard oil Go. turned on the gas jets in the sleeping rooms of several of the household with the apparent intent to Stupify the sleepers while they could proceed with their footing at leisure.
 It is as much as ones life is worth if he is stranger, to approach one of the numerous homes of the wealthy in the exclusive colony where dwell many multi-millionaires. Bull dogs, hounds collies and many other mem bers of the dog family are turned loose from their kennels at night to rove at will through the countryside, and while their barking is something of a tax on the nerves of the residents, it is considered most effective in pre- venting recurrence of the almost tragic burglary at the Bedford home.
 While the Bedford home is the last to be visited it is by no means the only one of the homes of wealth in Greens Farms and vicinity to be wis ited by the gang of auto burglars who have been terrorizing the shore homes between New York and this city for several years.
 With the capture of three members of the gang during the last two years, there came a cessation of the bur glarfes until this summer, when they have been renewed with as much ac- of %t,1 former prosperous seasons of the re- sourceful cracksmen. One of the leaders of this gang is held by the authorities to be no other than the notorious Tim Sheedy, the famous burglar whose dramatic escape from the Hartford county jail this month electrified police officials throughout have figured in several of the auto mobile raids. of burglars upon the shore homes of the wealthy, and it would not greatly surprise the author ities if Sheedy himself were a party to the Bedford robbery.
 First of the homes of wealth near Greens Farms to be visited this sum- mer was that of Arnold Schlaet, also a Standard Oil millionaire, whose residence is in Compo, Westport. Burglars managed to quiet the dogs guarding the handsome Schlaet home,
  month ago, making off with big haul of silverware, valued at nearly $2,000. Town authorities of West port worked for while along the line that the crime was that of dis gruntled discharged employees, at length abandoning this theory in favor of that of the return of the nocturnal automobile providers.
 Two weeks to the day from the time of the recent Bedford burglary. cracksmen managed to gain entrance to the home of George Tilley, half a mile to the east of the residence of Charles F. Bedford. MT. Tilley is one of the largest stockholders of the Adams Express Co. His home was ransacked and a big quantlty oI slie case over to private detectives secur- ed through the Express Co. but none of the loot has thus far been recov- cred.
 Methods employed by the burglars at the home of MT. Tilley were lden- tical with those used at the Bedford home. The cracksmen, employing unusual agility, climbed by pillars from the broad porches to the proch roof and thence found means of an easy entrance through bed room win dows.
 No warning of the presence of the burglars at the Tilley residence was spread until the household awoke the following morning and found the house in confusion and hundreds of dollars worth of silverware gone.
 The Tilley home is set upon the shore in the heart of Greens Farms and it is several miles south of the principal thoroughfare between Southport and Westport-
 MT. Bedford's home is on a south ern slope overlooking the sound. The house is a hundred yards back from the roadway, and it is approached by winding drives. To the north of the home is a lodge where several em- ployees have living apartments, and a drive way to this leads to a hedge which affords a screen to pedestrians who might seek to near the house from the north.
 When Mrs. Arthur Lewis had arous- ed her husband a New York attor- ney and relative of Mrs. Bedford. at the discovery of a man in their room, it was after midnight, Saturday morn ing. The noise of bureau drawer dropping from it's slides to the floor as the burglar in impatient haste tore it open, aroused her, and she fortu- nately had not been overcome by the lethargic gas fumes as had her nus band. Her screams sent the burglar and another cracksman in the hall flashing down stairs and out over the lawn into the night.
 Investigation Saturday brought to light marks showing how the cracks men had gained their entrance. Climb ing up by a pillar at the north end
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