The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1911-09-22
An Auto is Stolen

Automobile thieves stole Dr. y. II.
Salter's forty horsepower Overland
car out of his barn between l o'clock
and o'clock Friday morning.
The car was located at II o'clock
mile south and three miles west of
town, in a ditch near the old Kost
farm. The driver had tried to turn
around and had gone into ditch. be-
ing unable to go further. The car was
brought to town, unframed.
zgzag path made by the car in.
dicates that the driver may have been
drunk. Whether the thieves were try.
ing to make getaway or merely COM
mitted burglary for the sake of a JOY
ride, is not known.
The thieves rolled back the barn
door, pushed the car out into an alley,
then pushed it a half block north
| through the alley behind Mayor Fri
days house before starting the en-
CINE. When they reached Nebraska
avenue they cranked the engine, went
| east to Ninth street, south to Philip
| avenue, and then east at least as far
as the Northwestern depot. Here the
| tracks are lost.
Neighbors Hear the Car.
Neighbors on Nebraska avenue
heard car being cranked during the
night, probably about a. m, but
| thought nothing Of it. When DR.. Sal
ter went to look for his car at z
o'clock, the machine was gone and the
barn door open.
1t is believed that four men who
were seen on the Salter premises at
| midnight last Sunday night, may have
been the thieves. On that occasion
the maid at the salter home was on
| the back porch about midnight, just
returning home, when four men came
across a vacant lot at the east of the
house and went toward the barn.
When they saw somebody on the
porch they turned up the alley and
walked on out. Nothing was said
about the incident until the car had
disappeared Friday morning.
Mems Heels Leave Marks.
The tracks of the car wheels show
that the machine was pushed back
wards out of the barn and then pushed
north through the alley. Deep i'm
prints of mems heels, where they brac-
ed themselves in the ground to get
the car going, were still clearly Wis.
ible.
The path of the stolen machine was
zigzag one, indicating that probably
the thieves were running without
lights. Having six hours start, it was
estimated that the machine might have
got seventy-tive to 100 miles before po-
lice in surrounding towns We're mott.
fed.
Surrounding Towns Notified.
Chief of Police Marquardt suspected
that the robbers might have gone
north or west, and notified towns in
both directions. He also telephoned
to Fremont, Omaha, Sioux City and
Columbus.
The thieves apparently had made
themselves familiar with the Salter
premises and apparently know how to
run an automobile pretty well, taking
the chance of stealing the car and get
ting away with it.
The car, with equipment, cost about
$1,000.
Insured Against Theft
DR.. Salter carried insurance against
theft.
During the morning it developed
that the machine had been driven
south from Norfolk on Thirteenth
street. E. G. Daum, an expert auto
driver, was returning from Madison
about that time and met car two
miles south of Norfolk. going toward
Madison. The driver was apparently
inexperienced, as he was having a hard
time to run straight in the sand and
he forced Daum far out to the side of
the road.
One of George Dudley's drivers, fur
Their south, met the same car a little
later.