New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-07
Thieves Unable to
Find Rum, So They
Rob Safe of 1867
Baffled Liquor Hunters
i'm Alcohol Warehouse
Batter Strong Box After
Drop Through Skylight

Shifting speculatively in the region
of 527 Hudson Street, the warehouse
of the David Berg Industrial Alcohol
Company, a gang of rum thieves de-
tected the unmistakable odor of
alcohol and forced their way through
an ironbarred skylght, intent on
making away with quantities Of the
precious fluid.
The rum-hunting expedition took
place last Friday night and when it
leaked out yesterday Albert H. Sell
ing, manager of the warehouse, re-
luctantly confirmed the story.
They found no rum, at least not the
kind they were seeking, and vented
their rage on an innocent safe which
now lies battered and forlorn in cor
ner of the ground floor. They found
something Tess precious in their eyes,
S4,597 in cash, and took it away with
them.
Warehouse Strongly Barred
Large quantities of alcohol for in
dustrial purposes are stored at the
Hudson Street warehouse Of the Berg
company, whose distillery is in Phil
adelphia. The warehouse is strongly
barred at all possible points of en-
patrols pass the premises during the
night. Nevertheless the intrepid rum
seekers were able to break in.
Next door TO sgt Hudson Street is a
tenement house, and Mr.. Selling thinks
the robbers worked from the roof of
this house. Two iron bars covering a
skylight were forced back, making a
narrow entrance, large enough only for
an extremely thin man or child. One
of the gang, or child working with
it, came through the skylight and then
opened a door in the penthouse of
the freight elevator, permitting the rest
to enter the top floor of the building
Eagerly they sought whisky and found
only denatured alcohol.
Ripped Safe Open
When their hootch hunt came to a
sudden end they looked for some one
on whom to let out their injured feel
ings. Finding no humans about, they
in the crudest fashion. From the ap-
pearance of the safe yesterday, they
had not come prepared for such job
They extracted a number of envelopes
and then made their way to the top
floor again. They scrambled through
the narrow door of the penthouse and
on the roof they examined their haul
Fridays visit was not the first one
received by the industrial alcohol COM
pany. About three weeks ago a gang
came, armed with milk cans, in which
they hoped to carry away hootch. When
they looked around the warehouse they
found that the Berg Company's cans
We're much more convenient to use and
left the milk cans behind, making off
with about fifty gallons of industrial
alcohol 1t was after this visit that
the skylight was barred and other pre-
cautions taken. Now the whole build
ing will be wired with an electrical
alarm system.
One hundred and five cases Of what
was said to be honest to goodness beer
were seized by the police last night at
restaurant at 719 Seventh Avenue
where it was being unloaded. Stephen
Christie, of West New York, N. j., and
John Engler, of 73 Madison Street, who
are said to have been unloading the
truck, were locked up at the West
Forty seventh Street police station. The
beer is said to have been shipped from
Pennsylvania.