New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-26
WEST SIDE HAS
MYSTERY RAID
Millionaire with Chaplin
MuStache Gone When
Maid Opens Door.
9th STREET BUZZES
ABOUT STRANGE AUTO
Mrs. Rice, Owner of Apartment,
Says No One Was at Home
Detectives Missing Now.

That place where so many things
happen, the upper West Side. was ex-
cited yesterday over the tale of a multi
millionaire who escaped from a wom-
ans apartment after raid, in which
at least one man was said to have rep
resented himself as a police detective.
The millionaire in question dashed up
the scuttle. over the roof aid down a
fire escape when the sleuths were
threatening to kicl. in the door of the
fiat.
The story ran that Mrs. Fanny Rice
rented fiat at 72 West Sixty-ninth
Street two months ago, saying her sis
ter, Miss De La We're, would live there,
with two colored maids. After the sis
ter moved in fine automobile would
take her out for an airing almost every
afternoon. A man. supposed to be the
millionaire, called quite often.
One description of the millionaire
was that he was identified with great
railway system. was an automobile en-
thusiast and had Charlie Chaplin"
mustache.
But somebody W. It'd some informa-
ton, about this mysterious man, and
four detectives set out % get it. One
afternoon last week they appeared and
beat or the door f the fat, to no
avail. They reappeared last Monday
afternoon. When arrived the
millionaire was already there, so the
tale runs.
This time the detectives set them
selves 20 covering" the house. One
watched the front steps, ar other the
cellar in the back yard. Two went up
stairs and hammered on the door.
"What do you want?" came 4 voice
from the inside.
1--WE want the man that's in there"
said the sleuths.
you'll hav. to wait minute" said
the voice behind the door
The detectives did wait a minute
several minutes, in fact. Then, getting
y
the door. Instead, : n 70 maid Jened
through the fat. But no man was
there One of the detectives showed a
police shield, and said he was Lieuten-
ant Jones, of the West Sixty-eighth
Street station, so the story was told.
The maid, although credited with
boasting she had aided the man. to
escape, denied this last night. She and
a woman who claimed to be Mrs. Rice,
and who was not at home when the
raid occurred" said nobody was in the
fat except the maid, "who was fright
ened at first, and did not want to open
the door to strangers" Mrs. Rice said
Miss de la We're mad been away all
summer i'll the country.
One of the occupants of the house
said he was shown a police shield. At
the West Sixty-eighth Street station
Sergeant Keller, who is in charge of
Inspector Dryers work. said there was
no Lieutenant Jones there. There is a
detective named Jones on the inspec-
tors staff. At the station house he was
said to have been on his vacation for
"a couple Of days" Patrolmen and
detectives alike scoffed at the idea OF
a police detective being mixed up in
getting probable evidence for a divorce
The jantor of the house at No. ~
was terribly wrought up over the affair
last night. Reporters had pestered
him to death, he said.
"Well, don't you want to have the
facts put down correctly, have them
written right ," asked one of the re-
porters.
Right! Right" snapped the jantor
"Great heavens, I'm ALWAYS right"
Although admitting he had made no
investigation of the case, Captain John
0rmsbee, acting inspector in Dwyer':
absence, denied emphatically that there
was any truth in the story.
"The whole thing is fake" he said
81 shan't give it a moments considera.
ton"