The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-15
BURGLARS SLEEP IN
EDITORS BEST BED
r. G. Belts Returns From
Country to Find City Home
Ransacked.
NEXT HOUSE ROBBED TOO

r. G. Belts. editor and publisher Of
the Sporting Goods Sales Journal OF 80
Park Row. returned with Mrs. Belts
yesterday morning from their summer
home al Fairfield. Conn. TO their city
homo at 4os West 14eth street. Mrs.
Belts. who preceded her husband by n
step or two through the vestibule OF the
house. screamed suddenly and dropped
upon n chair in the reception hall. Mr..
Belts. glancing rapidly this way and that.
thought for a he had got into
the wrong house.
A neat and we'll ordered home had been
turned topsy turvy. Chairs Invested Of
summer wrappings lay upside down
upon the discolored and SCARED hard
wood floors. An Oriental rug hung
askew over a bent chandelier. Pictures.
ierked from the wall hooks. Uttered the
floor, and some canvases had been pried
from their frames. Cigar and cigarette
butts dotted the dirty floors and there
were traces of liquor and overturned and
broken glasses.
Mrs. Belts. after some tanning. was
able 20 continue exploration OF a house
which looked ms II it nae entertained m
earthquake. and the further she led her
husband the worse was the spectacle
presented. II was evident after the
first glance that burglars had been busy.
The thieves. Of whom. apparently.
there were two. had spent at least one
night In the house. They had slept COM
fortably in the best bedroom. the one re-
served usually for honest guests. and
they had enjoyed several meals OF their
own cooking. as the kitchen n dining
room showed. Tins OF vegetables had
been opened and scraps OF meat indi-
Gated hat the visitors had had the nerve
70 leave the house NJ least once and buy
something filling from the butchers.
After cooking the food the burglars had
used the Retts silver and cut glass and
table linen TO Increase the pleasure of
the feast.
In Mr.. Betts's bedroom was n small
steel safe with a concrete bottom. The
burglars had found In a closet n kit OF
tools that Mr.. Retts uses 10 repair his
automobile and had lab%oriously chlpped
a hole In the concrete bottom OF the
safe. deadening the racket by using nil
lows and some Of Mrs. Betts's incest
table and bed linen. The visitors had
also turned on the gas meter I'm the
basement and hadn't been afraid to flood
the house with light. While they were
~ IL they turned on the water meter
1900
10 get highball markings. probably. since
there were no other signs that they had
had any use for water.
After recovering from the shock OF
the discovery Mr.. and Mrs. Belts took
stock and figured that the burglars had
stolen perhaps 5000 worth Of jewelIed
trinkets and silverwarc. The most val
liable articles had been placed in safe
deposit before the Bettses went to the
country. Very shortly after getting
home they learned hat the home Of
Henry Kimball. next door at 40. had
been ransacked and robbed In about
the same manner as their own.
\ woman who lives on the ton floor
OF an apartment IN West i45th street
which overlooks the Kimban and Retts
houses saw two men jump the back
fence early on Thursday night. Later
she saw them on the roof. She said
she was afraid 10 make an outcry and
so did nothing until Saturday morning.
when she told n~eighbors about what
she had seen.
The burglaries were the fourth within
a month in the block where the Kimball
and Belts families live.