New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-11-17
SILK ROBBERS ARE
CAUGHT WITH LOOT
CIBBON POLICE AND CITIZENS
APPREHEND TWO CLEVER
CRIMINALS.
SUITCASE MEN TRY TO TURN
TRICK ONCE TOO OFTEN.
GO TO JAIL.

To Marshall H. Raatz OF Gibbon goes
the credit OF having landed some Of the
cleverest thieves of the day. At least,
the credit OF making the capture is his,
altho a good number of the citizens
of Gibbon lent their assistance in running
down the quarry. The capture was
made Saturday morning and the thieves,
'of whom there were two, had their
examination before Justice Guggisberg
Saturday afternoon and are now in
Henderson awaiting the action of the
Grand Jury.
Early last spring thieves entered the
store of Friedl & Sons at Gibbon and
removed several hundred dollars worth
of silks, making their getaway without
difficulty. No trace could be found of
them and while it is not known that
they were the same parties who later
victimized stores at Winthrop, New
Ulm, Springfield, Morgan, Blue Earth,
Mankato and Faribault, it is supposed
that they are at any rate part of the
gang which has been so very busy and so
very successful for the past six months.
Friday night two men decided to see if
they could turn the trick again at
Friedl's store and would have gotten
away with it had it not been that one of
the business men of the town was out
late and noticed two men on the op-
posite side of the street from his place
of business. Their actions caused him
to become suspicious in view Of the
many robberies of the past weeks, and
he called up the police and reported to
Marshall Raatz. They aroused other
citizens and meantime the sound Of the
breaking Of glass was heard and their
suspicious became certainty.
Searching the town, it was found that
the thieves had entered the store of
Friedl & Sons and succeeded In making
harl apr-oxir1ctelng e. a. - =, ys,os'2a
of silks and some watches were also
l.
and four o'clock in the morning and the
passenger from Watertown to the Cities
was due. A delegation was posted at
the station to watch all possible chances
of escape and the thieves were not
allowed to get out of town in that way.
However, had the passenger not been
late, they would perhaps have been
successful at that. But that was the
one thing that they had not counted on;
the one little thing that fate always
slips to the criminal sometime in his
career.
Finding themselves unable to leave
town by their usual method of trans
portation, the thieves started to get out
by foot and made for the country. It
is presumed that they intended to hide
during the day and make station at
night and reach safety. The citizens
of Gibbon, however, made use Of the
rural telephone lines and warned all the
farmers living along roads leading to
town to be on the watch for the strangers.
During the early morning VIM. Dahlgren,
farmer living mile and quarter west
of Gibbon telephoned in that two
strangers had been spending the night
in one of his hay stacks.
A party was made up and started out
but they found on reaching the Dahlgren
place that the quarry had given them the
slip. A search however revealed the
suitcases with the silks buried in the hay
tho the watches were missing. There
could no longer be any doubt that the
guilty parties were somewhere near and
in short time they were located hiding
in cornfeld and they surrendered with
out making any great show of resistance.
It was impossible to get any word
out of the two men arrested. They re-
fused to give their names or residences
and shut up like oysters, making no
replies to any questions asked and taking
their sentence to Henderson in silence.
They had the appearance of gentlemen
and one of them was gray-haired. His
companion was about thirty-fve years
of age.
At any rate, merchants in this section
will breathe easier for few nights as
they close their places of business for the
day. There can be little doubt that
there are others in the gang and that
these two men are expecting help of
some sort from their pals. A jail delivery
at Henderson would not be surprising
development.