The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-05-30
ROBBERS BLOW Open
CuLLEOKA POST0FF|CE
AND GET ABOUT $500
TAKE EVERYTHING EXCEPT The
PENNIES AND A FEW LOOSE
STAMPS.
| SAFE DOOR IN FRAGMENTS
Complete Wreck Made OF the Com
ReceptacIes- Tools Stolen From a
Section House and Sound MItfec
With Rain Coats.

Burglars broke into the postotfice
at Culleoka some time during Friday
night, blew open the iron safe, rif1ed
the cash drawer and made away with
about $125 in cash and more than
$500 worth of stamps.
There is no clue absolutely to the
perpetrators oil the robbery. In tact
the work of the crackmen was done
SO well, so expeditiously and with so
little noise ,hat no one can be found
who heard tae explosion. Harper
Digger, night operator, of the Cum
berland Telephone and Telegraph
Company, whose exchange is within
very short distance of the postof-
fee, believes that he heard muf-
! fed sound at about 2 o'clock this
morning He is not certain, howev-
er, and the noise was so slight that he
paid no attention to It.
The robbery was not discovered
until the Office was opened this morn
ing by Lindsey Smith, the assistant
postmaster, at about 5 o'clock. When
he walked III he saw almost com.
plete wreck Papers, vouchers and
checks were scattered over the floor.
The entire front of the iron safe had
been blown Oft and the pieces were
scattered foc many feet. Tools that
had been purloined from the tool
house of the section foreman of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad, were
thrown about the room in great con-
fusion. A ha3ty examination proved
that practically everything of value
had been taken. There was about
$125 in money and this, with the ex-
ception of two or three dollars In one
cent coins, nad been taken. Only
two or three dollars worth of stamps
were left. ~
The robbers found pistol in the
cash drawer, took it out and laid IL
on the postmaster's desk where it
was found This morning. About SIS
worth of government checks we're
found on the floor.
The robbers broke the lock on the
tool house Of the Louisville & Nash
willie Railroad, secured several tools
and with these opened the rear door
of the postoffice. The cup on the
combination of the safe door was
priced off and large quantity OF nj
troglycerine inserted in the hole The
sound was securely muffled with the
rain coats and slickers of the railroad
section hands. taken from the tool
house. The explosion must have
been considerable one for the door
of the large safe was blown into frag-
ments.
Postmaster Lon C. Hickman was at
the scene Immediately after the rob-
cry was discovered and he lost no
time in notifying the officers in a
wide range of territory. However,
there is absolutely no clue to the rob-
bers. Postmaster Hickman estimat-
ed this morning that the losses of the
government and his losses, all the
property being the personal belong
ings of the postmaster, would amount
to between $500 and $500. The gov
eminent will o. course lose the mon
ey and stamps because every precau-
ton had beer taken by the post mas
ter to insure its safety. The damage
to fixtures vii. fall upon the postmas-
ter.
This is the third burglary of the
character in the Culleoka section
within a period of less than three
years, One OF the stores at Campbell
Station, just below Culleoka, was rob
bed and the safe at Evins Bros. was
blown open q short time thereafter
and robbed. During the same time
two robberies were committed at
Groveland, one at Timmons and an
other at the store of Caldwell Bros,
on the Bear Creek pike.
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