New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-13
SAFE BREAKERS STEAL
$4,000 IN JEWELRY
Cut the Back Out of East Side
Shop StrOngbox with
''Can Opener"
| WOMAN GIVES THE ALARM
Much of Plunder in Diamonds
Police Hear of the Rob
berry Four Hours
Late.

Two men. by the aid of can opener
a yard long, cut "A hole into the back OF
a fiye-foot safe in the jewelry shop Of
Joseph Fass, No. IS Clinton street, be-
fore dawn yesterday. and escaped with
diamonds and jewelry valued at $4,000.
They left behind stock of one third this
value, and drills. jimmies, burlap, electric
light wire and the can opener" itself.
on the third floor above the shop Mrs.
sadie Pincus lay tossing on her bed. IN
able 10 sleep for the heat. About 4
o'clock she heard unusual noises. and
peering down she saw a man facing the
barred window Of the Clinton barber
shop. adjoining the jewelry store. The
man saw her at the same time.
For Gods sake pass out the bag" he
said in a loud whisper. Mrs. Pincus
popped her head out of the window.
Thieves, Help! Police" she yelled.
I'm her night dress she ran through
the hallway and down the stairs TO the
fiat below, where Mrs. Fass was sleep
ing. Mr.. Fass was not at home. The
police afterward were told he had gone
to the country, leaving the store in
charge Of his wife and her brother,
Louis Perlstein. Mrs. Fass slipped into
he wrapper and, grabbng the store
keys. made for the street.
When Mrs. Fass. with trembling hand,
unlocked the front door crowd had
90 h. 81, -.
light and started for the rear door. It
took all her strength to push il open
and when she did get it open an old sofa
which was I'm the back room fell. mar
rowly missing her head A single light
here showed how the thieves operated
In the partition separating the front and
back rooms was q large hole, exposing
the back of the iiyo-f0ot safe standing in
the front room. \ hole twelve inches In
diameter was cut through the outer steel
shell, and another, half that size. in the
inner shell offered access 10 the strong
box containing Fass's valuable stock.
The polio" Of the Eldridge street sta
tion didn't get wind OF tho break until
y o'clock, more than four hours after
the men escaped. II was too dark to see
the man Well so Mrs. Pincus couldn't
Naher Mccarthy. Snydecker and Owens,
who took charge.
Tho detectives were pretty sure the
men reached the back room OF the jew
elry shop by passing into the rear court
through the main entrance 10 the five
story block ar No. - Clinton street
Three bars were missing from the iron
shutters in the barber shop next door
indicating that one Of the men had
crawled into the shop and then opened
from the inside the door leading from
the hallway to the barber shop The
safe breakers easily cut hole through
the partition to the back room Of the
jcwelry store adjoining.
Mrs. Pincus's broken sleep was respon-
sible for the incomplete job. Her first
yell so alarmed the thieves that they
barely escaped with the plunder into the
hallway and thence to Clinton street,
the way they entered. Persons who are
familiar with jobs Of this sort on the
East Side. thought the 'can opener gang
worked more freely on account OF the
stationary post system.
on the floor Of the barber shop the de-
tectives found four safe drills varying
from one inch to one-sixteenth of an
inch. dfty feet of electric light wire. an
electric drill and the huge "can opener.
The blades of this tool were one foot
long and the handles, offering good lever
age. were two feet long. The ponce say
the job f. one of the biggest that mas
been done on the East Side in several