The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-02-17
4 Bit Of Well Planned and Executed
Detective Work Lands Two
Petty Thieves in the Ham

A Bit Of Well Planned and Executed
Detective Work Lands Two
Petty Thieves in tho Ham.
ilton Jail.
The city marshal, Mr. g. q. Barnum
has in his custody In the city jail, a
coupls OF fellows that It Is believed
have been making a living for the
greater part Of the past six or eight
months by doing petty thieving In
the community in which they live.
some four or Ave miles north and a
little east Of Hamilton.
1t Is believed that the name OF one
of these fellows Is A. o. Spicer and
the other is B. M. McLin, his broth
erin law. They have bean little
backward about giving out much In
formation, In fact one OF them gave
a different name, but the other fellow
gave the thing away by calling him
his right name.
AS statsd above, petty thieving has
been going on for six or eight months,
or ever since this man Spicer tnoveo
into the community. Farmers have
gone into their fields and found where
largs patches OF corn had been shuck-
ed out, amounting to ten or twelve
bushels. Other places hay stacks or
hay mows have been robbed OF hay,
in one instance something like forty
dollars worth Of clover seed was TAX
en-. In a number Of instances farmers
have missed hogs and In one instance
farmer Mr.. S. ]. Hyndman, who
has all his hogs marked, went to the
home OF this man Spicer and founc
two Of his hogs in Spicer's pm, and
upon his demanding them, Spicer I'm
mediately gave them up, saying that
they had just strayed into his place
and he shut them us. This has been
going on SO long and the thiaf has go;'
ten SO bold about it, that the farmers
in the entire community are up in
arms. One man has actually been
guilty of camping out all night with
a shot gun, expecting and hoping to
get the guilty fellow in the act. Other
farmers have used different means in
an attempt to trap him, but all have
failed till Monday morning Of this
week when Mr.. /. N. Hosford of the
northeast country got busy to see
what he could do. One morning late
last week at very early hour, MIR.
Hosford and family heard q vehicle
passing their residence. Suspicioning
that 1t might be the thfsf with loac
OF plumber, they went to the window
and looked out, and from the light OF
the moon as we'll as from the snow
on the ground, they recognized the
team to he that of MIR. Spicer, he hav
ing jag of coal; and later on tina,
same day, upon going down the road
on an errand for themselves, Mr.. Hos
ford tracked a vehicle to the district
school house where 1t had driven UP
to thu coal shed, helped themselves to
what coal was there and drove off up
the road.
Again on Monday morning at a
little after three O'Clock, MIR. Hosford
heard team and wagon passing. He
again arose and the conditions being
the same as before he could clearly
see and recognize the team of Mr..
Spicer hitched to wagon with a
bed with side boards ON 1t and one
man standing UP in the wagon. Along
about six o'clock of the same morn
ing, Mr.. Hosford saw this man Mr..
Sp7cler returning home, walking in the
middle OF the road with a bundle OF
sacks under his arm. Mr.. HosforG
made UP his mind to come to town
and see what he could discover. On
the road down he back tracked the
tracks of Spicer down the road for
several miles until he came almost to
the Carthage road. Here in the field
Of Mr.. Rant Van Aernam stands a
corn crib to itself In the field a short
distance from the road. Mr.. Hosford
made Investigations and saw that a
team had be 5n unhitched from wag-
on that morning, leaving the wagon
at the side of the road and tying the
horses to the hedge just inside OF a
gate. He then saw that wvsll beaten
track was made from the wagon in!
the road to the crib, and it was evf-
dent that load or part of load OF
corn had been taken that morning.
Mr.. Hosford came to Hamilton and
notified Mr.. VanAernam as we'll as
the city marshal, and still hunt be-