The Mankato free press., 1913-02-21
Hardware Store Was Entered By
Amateur Last Night
TOOK POOREST REvOLvERS
Police Have Reason to Believe Burglar
New at Work: Surprise of One
Proprietor.

| Evidently some one in Mankato
! is intending to take up burglary as
| a profession and is learning the
! trade by stealing the tools he needs.
| What appears to have been an anna
! teur burglar or burglars entered the
! hardware store of Zimmerman and
| Bangerter at 410 South Front street
some time last night and made off
with three reVOlVerS and a quantity
of ammunition. Nothing else was
disturbed What leads the police to
believe that the thieves were novices
is the fact that they took the poorest
revolvers in the store. In the show
case were two fine Colts automatic
pistols and a number of the ordinary
kind of revOlvers, and the thief pick
ed out three shooting irons the ag-
gregated value of which is about
$14.50. All were Harrington and
Richardson guns, one blue barreled
thirty-twO and two nickled thirty
eight calibre revolvers. The shiny
guns probably appealed to the rob-
bers sense of beauty and he entire
ly overlooked the ugly, though much
more efficient Colts bulldogs. The
robber also had some difficulty in
finding ammunition for the guns and
finally took some cartridges made
for the autOmatics and some rim fire
shells. The rim fire shells will not
shoot in the guns he took for they
are made for center fire cartridges.
Acquainted With Store.
inf ,ct oil
about the inside of the store for he
knew just where to cut a hole with
his jackknife in the panel of the back
door so that the hole would be just
under the bar that is placed across
the door at night A circular hole
about three inches in diameter had
been cut in the rear door with a
sharp jackknife, through which thel
robber put his arm and lifted the
bar from across the door, slipped the
bolt back and turned the key which
was in the lock on the inside This
door is an excellent place to pull
off a stunt of this kind as it is well
protected from the prying eyes ofl
alley-walking policemen. The store
house used by Zimmerman and Ban
gerter is on the rear of the store
building and it juts out so as to shut
from view the rear door of the
store. Thus on three sides the burg
lar was protected by brick walls.
Proprietor was Surprised.
George Zimmerman came to the |
store this morning from the Milwau-
kee depot and intended to go in at |
the rear door. His surprise was
evident when he saw a neat hole |
in the door and the door step lit |
tered with pine shavings. William |
Bangerter was at the store before |
him and telephoned the police De- |
putty Sheriff Ed. Ario arrived on |
the scene withthe bloodhounds, but
they We're unable to get a start be-
cause the ground around the door |
had already been travelled by Mr.. |
Mr.. Bangerter had |
touched the door on the inside to |
close it when he found it open when |
he came to the store in the morning |
and he had also walked behind the |
show case where the fire arms had |
been taken. Thus the scent was de-
stroyed so that the dogs could not |
pick it up.
The police suspect that the same
men who entered the Minneapolis |
Brewing company's store house last
Sunday are also responsible for break
ing into the hardware store.