The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-02-01
LAKELAND VISITOR
BARELY ESCAPES
Being VICTIM|zLD
OUT OF $4,000


narrow escape from being deprived of
$4,000 by confidence men in Lake
land, James G. Creglow, of Sioux
City. Iowa. was seen by an Evening
Telegram representative this after
noon. TO whom he told the story of
the attempt to victimize him.
Mr.. Creglow. retired business man
of means. is spending the winter in
Lakeland. and was at Fort Myers
when he became acquainted with
man named Beardsley This man
ingratiated himself into Mr.. Greg
lows favor. and finally prevailed up
on him to accompany him to Lake
land. Arrived in this city. they were
passing in front of the First Nation
al Bank, when Beardsley hailed an
old acquaintance. whom he called
Miller. and who standing in front
of the bank. counting large roll of
money. Beardsley accused" Miller
of being the same man he had met
III Cincinnati playing the races. and
Miller admitted" this fact. The con-
versation then turned upon racing.
and Miller explained how he was mott
fed by wire in advance of every race,
by the Racing Association" as to
which horse would be the winner.
With this information he showed how
easy it would be to win large sums,
and finally after visit to Mr.. Greg
lows room at the Bridges Hotel, and
displaying roll said to amount to
$4,000, he prevailed upon Mr. Greg
low to make a draft on his bank at
Rock Ridge, Iowa for 100000 Mr.
Creglow would not consent to any
other disposition of the money than
that ii be transferred from his home
bank to the Lakeland bank but he
admits that if the money had been
; sent to Lakeland the crooks probably
| would have gotten it,
J The bank at Rock Ridge did not
like the looks of the draft transac-
ton and declined to pay the draft
pending an investigation. A nephew
of Mr.. Creglow's was sent down to
, look into the matter. Meanwhile the
: confidence men decided that the game
, was off, and on Sunday Mr.. Creglow
, says they left here for Tampa by
, auto.
: Mr. Creglow is awake to the fact
! that he narrowly escaped losing $40
. 600, and he expressed himself as
, thankful to the bank for protecting
| him. He is modest, unassuming
man, not at all such a man as one
would pick out from his appearance
: as being wealthy, but is above the av-
, erage in intelligence, and told his
e story with frankness and openness.
9 That Mr.. Creglow was found in
Lakeland so readily was due to the
fact that he registered yesterday at
Tourist Headquarters, giving his
: Lakeland address as the Anderson
Hotel, formerly the Jefferson. The
nephew mentioned in the Tribunes
article is also i'm Lakeland, Mr.. Greg
low says, and is a guest of the Kib
Ter.
The Tampa Tribune printed the fol
lowing article relative to this affair
in this mornings issue, but the above
is the true story as told by Mr.. Greg
low, the operations all being centeret
here instead of Tampa, and his name
being Creglow instead of Criglow:
\. The police department is facing
another racing game mystery, i'm
Which James Criglow, of Rcck Rap
ids, Iowa, who is believed to have
been the victim, or near-victim, of
confidence men. has suddenly disap-
peared after drawing draft for
$4,000 on his bank in Rcck Rapids.
Jack Criglow, nephew of the miss
ing man, who was sent to Tampa by
the bank to investigate the circum
stances, after locating his uncle
once, has lost all trace of the man
Owing to the caution of the bank nf-
ficials the draft was not honored, al
though Criglow had more than that
amount on deposit, and Chief of I :
lice Henderson has teleGraphed the
bank not to honor papers of any kind
signed by Criglcw
/ James Criglow came to TAMPA on
Dec. 3 and obtained a room at No.
lois l-2 Franklin street, where he
told several people that he intended
to spend the winter. Nothing oc-
Cured to alarm his relatives in Iowa
| until about ton dave ayo uJ,ap ,ba