New-York tribune., 1922-09-06
Burglars Steal
] Big Safe Under
Nose of Police
Get $lO, 600 Loot in Arverne
With Stationed Officer
but Twenty Feet Away;
One. of Four Robberies
Catch Two With Silk Loot
Closed West Side Home Is
Robbed of $40, 900; New
ark Theater Loses So. 900

Work:sg literally under the noses of
the poaes. burglars in two instances
yesterday indulged in raids involving
total loot of cash, iewelry and silks
estimated at s11,5oo A third burglary
netted it's perpetrators household prop
erty which an early inventory valued
at $4,000.
In one instance two alleged burglars
were captured as they were completing
their getaway. bat in the largest rob-
berry they not only escaped unobserved
but took with them heavy safe they
had hoisted through restaurant win
dow directly facing police booth and
only about twenty feet distant from
the latter.
+ The safe entertainment was con-
ducted from the restaurant of Arnold
Wetzler, at Sixty-seventh Street and
the boulevard, Arverne, Queens, in the
early hours of the morning. Appar-i
emily working in businesslike and lei
surely fashion, the burglars, after fore
ing All entrance into the establishment,
rolled the safe from its regular posi-
tion to the rear and then dragged 1t
through window plainly visible from
suS pViiSS 00ptH.
Find Broken Strong-Box
How they then lugged the safe away
is still in doubt, but it is surmised
they dumped it into a waiting automo-
bile, as the strong-box, broken into and
completely rifled, was found later in
an alley less than two blocks from the
police booth.
Wetzler, the restaurant proprietor,
reported that the safe had contained
$4,000 in cash, jewelry and valuable
papers. Five strangers observed in the
vicinity on Monday are suspected of
having committed the burglary, but no
elew as TO their identity has been an
nounced.
The other raid conducted virtually
In the police presence was from a
tenth-story loft in a building at 304
East Twenty-third Street, directly in
the rear of the East Twenty-second
Street police station. Here, however,
fashfight operated by the burglars
was observed by Detectives Gilman
and Lambert from the police station,
and they went to the loft structure to
investigate, Gilman climbing the fire.
escape and Lambert going up an in
terror stairway.
Fights Detective
On the eighth-foor landing Gilman
met man coming down with, it is
alleged, two bundles of silk shirts.
The intruder was powerfully built, and
a struggle, in which he endeavored to
Eurl the detective from the fire. escape,
4 ensued. 1t was ended by blow, from
! Gillman's blackjack, and the prisoner,
who gave the name Of Daniel Messener,
/ was taken to- the police station with
7 i.is loot
| A little later man giving the name
/ of John Boyle and, two more bundles
of shirts--the total value of the four
bundles was estimated at S1,500-were
taken from a Twenty-third Street
lodging house. A patrolman had seen
Boyle enter with the bundles and re-
ported the fact.
The burglars gained entrance to the
loft, which is the shirt factory of
Brooks Brothers, by cutting out a
glass panel. A jimmy, two screw
drivers and fiashlight were found in
the loft, it was, reported. Both men
arrested were charged with burglary.
Suspect Vacation" Gang
The other s10,0eo robbery of the
day was reported by Joseph H. Wise, a
member of the Arm of Davis & Cater
On returning with his family to his
home at 10 West Seventy-fourth
Street, from Maine vacation. Mr.
Wise discovered the house in disorder
| from cellar to attic, with the doors OF
all the closets jimmied open and furs
| clothing, silverware and jewelry miss
ing. From one receptacle alone, a
chest, silverware valued at nearly
( $4,000 had been taken.
The burglars had so upset the house
as to make it uninhabitable for the
time being, and Mr.. Wise and his fam
lily moved to the Hotel Netherland
Z temporarily. Police of the West Six
ty-eighth Street station are investi-
eating the burglary, which is believed
to have been perpetrated by sum
mer vacation" gang operating at the
homes of wellto-do West Siders.
An early morning burglary in New
ark, at the Rivoli Theater, 2oS Ferry
Street, netted the robbers $4,000 in
cash after they had forced open The
theater safe.