Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-05-17

an explosive. But the yeebheh
tice much simpler methods. froNlueu
with no apparatus except oot'ie Va
nitroglvcerine. a coil of fuse ana caps
they enter the postofiice through
door mr. window. with the help OF TOOLS /
stolen perhaps from a nearby oia0N
smiths shop.
Meanwhile. two or three men are
stationed outside as plckets' 10 give
an alarm in case anybody approaches
or TO shoot if there is occasion. Com
mon bar soap is used to MI the JOINTS
of the safe door and enough nitro
glycerine is allowed to percolate III
behind this "tamping 10 1urnlsh the
requisite explosion. Then the Iuse ID
lighted. and. at a safe distance, results
are awaited. When the safe has Deen
torn open. its contents are hasuly
thrown into a sack. All registered
and ordinary mail that happens 10
1 be on the premises is rified and the
thieves make off Should they be IN
| terrupted, they are always ready TO
/ kill. and usually they escape. Now
]
with citizens. and the latter, being
unprepared, are apt to get the worst
Of it,
Such a Job is easy, nearly always
successful. and attended by compare
lively little risk. Even If a postoffice
robber is captured and convicted. the
maximum penalty under the law is
only five years in prison. reward
of 500 TO 5000 is offered in cases OF
the kind by the government. and dur
ing the last year 329 thieves of this
class we're arrested; but the business
offers special attractions to criminals
Of the sort here described. and so goes
merrily on.
Recently there has been a new and
rather startling development of this
kind of industry. The postoffice rob
bers have taken to practicing their
profession in automobiles. Upstate in
New York they are going from town
to town in motor cars (stolen, of
course). and pillaging postoffice after
postoffice in some instances several
of them in a night. In this way a
gang of yeggmen can easily rifle the
postal safes in half dozen or more
towns between midnight and day
break. speeding away thereupon to a
distance of 100 miles or more from
the scene of operations and scatter
ing. The car is left behind it is
easy to steal another one when they
! want 1t.
The stamps stolen by the robber.
are easily disposed of through ;
T fence" in some city, who convert.
4 them into money by selling them at
p discount. 1t is astonishing (say tn,
detectives of the postal service) how
a few questions are asked, and how liz
4 tie it takes to satisfy business people
p, of the highest standing that it is prop
Il or to buy stamps which are at leas
@ under suspicion of having been stolen
g All stamps look alike, and are curren
d everywhere at face value They ca,
O not be identified as stolen goods i
, the hands of either thief or receive,
If One of the most remarkable roll
q berries occurred not long ago at Ricf
moDd, Va. where the postoffice wa
v entered some time between Saturda
d evening and the following Monds
e. morning. the vault blown open an
=" $S6,295 in stamps and money stoler
r Two suspicious strangers left the cit
r. with several trunks soon after III
,e burglary, and by clever work the go
s. eminent detectives traced thes
" trunks through several cities to Ne
in York. There ,ney arrested Eddie Fs
1T and Richard Harris. notorious veg