The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-02
CLERK IN PAWNSHOP IDENTIFIES STONES SMALL Asks Man Trying to Pawn
 Diamonds Where He
 Got Them FLEES LEAVING THE SPARKLERS BEHIND Purity Squad in the Offing Brought Signal From Pal Outside and the Robber Decamped After Futile
 Swing at J. Levy, the Clerk
"None of your d- business.


 This was the reply of a tall, heavy set white man to J. Levy, pawn brokers clerk when Levy asked him where he obtained two diamonds, taken from R. E. Small Tuesday morn- ing at 4;15 o'clock at the office of the Fleischnann Yeast company. eos Nine- teenth street. by two masked highway men. who robbed him at the point of drawn revolvers.
 The stranger stepped into the pawn shop of H. Gordon, 2126 Second ave- nue. last night at o'clock and in- formed Levy that he had loose dia- mond that he wanted to pawn. Levy stepped behind the counter and the man pulled a small parcel wrapped in newspaper from his vest pocket. He unfolded the paper which concealed another package wrapped in tissue pa- per. As he unwrapped the tissue paper he made an effort to conceal one of the stones and show only one.
 Levy detected the movement and said: You have two of them, eh?" The stranger glanced furtively at the door and replied that he only wanted to pawn one of them. How much do you want on it?" and second later "Where did you get those diamonds" IL was then that the man spoke as above. The man looked toward the door again and said: Give me those dia- monds or I will blow your d. head off" With these words the stranger struck viciously at Levy. who fell backward but retained his hold on the cta xl.~ man ran out of the door and up the street.
 Purity Squad Approaches
 At this juncture Officers Christian, Mitchell, Crump, Alexander and Ellis passed the door. Levy ran out and told them what had happened. Officer Christian called up Chief Eagan and he hurried to the scene with Detective Macke and a newspaper man. Levy was very much excited but he still had the diamonds In his possession upon the arrival of the chief. Chief Eagan gave him receipt for the stones and took them in charge. Both diamonds weighed over two carats and R. E. Small was communicated with immediately He identified the stones as the ones of which he was robbed Tuesday morning. The diamonds will be held in the GUS. tody of the chief until some time today WneH SIidll VIII nave a DeLter CndnCe of positively identifying them. The two are valued at $500.
 The sudden departure of the man who appeared in the pawnshop for the purpose of obtaining money on the stolen sparklers is explained by the ory advanced by Chief Eagan. It Is that the man who went into the pawnshop to raise the money on the diamonds had an accomplice on the n ci hn 1f i,,ry him in the event any detectives ap- peared. As 1t happened officers ap- although they were not in the vicinity for the purpose of shad- owing any pawnshop or catching the The detectives working on the case had warned the pawnshops of the weight size and purity of the stolen diamonds and instructed them to be on the lookout for any attempt to pawn them. They did not think that the robbers would attempt to raise money on their booty so soon and as matter of fact did not think they would try to get rid of the Jewels in this city.
 The attempt to raise money on the diamonds gave the police a valuable clew to work on inasmuch as it indi- oates that the men are still in town and are up against 1t for funds. A fairly accurate description was given the police by Levy. Another clew which Is valuable Is the fact that the accom- plice who was looking out on the cut side of the store knew the plain clothesren as they approached This leads the police to believe that one man at least Is familiar with Birming- ham and has been a resident here for sometime. After leaving the pawn shop the man ran toward First ave- nue and disappeared.
 Eagan Takes Precautions
 Chief Eagan instructed two of his men to hide in the store and wait to see if the man would come back to claim the diamonds he left behind. Two more men were detailed to follow Levy to his home to see that no one molest- ed him. Detective Moser was detailed on the case last night and in all prob ability will be busy on 1t all night. All the railroad yards are being care- fully watched as wcll as the outgoing passenger trains. The police dragnet has been spread and the entire city will be combed in an effort to locate the men responsible for the robbery It Is thought not unlikely that these men, in the event w. H. Sunderland was held up. had a hand in it, al- though according to the statement of he was held up by a ne- gro. Both robberies were on the same night.
 Despite the fact that the police have been of the opinion that the Small job was done by experts. last nights development leads them to be- ieve the robbers were amateurs at the business. ig*
 "It seems improbable that any ex- pert gunman would attempt to get money on his loot so soon after he did Inc job" said Chief Eagan T am now convinced that the men who robbed Small were amateurs and had no idea ,f methods police departments use in the detection of the crook and the ul- Innate recovery of the stolen property. This affair tonight Is the only clew we have to the identity of the robbers and 1t Is not a very good one. Never theless, we will work hard on the case