Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-29
Robber Forces Manager of
Earle and Assistant to
Open Safe.
STUDIES LOBBY POSTERS
AFTER OBTAINING LOOT
Three Youths Who Saw Loiterer
Give Police Description and
Aid in Hunt.

headquarters, we'll dressed bandit
strobe into the Earle Theater, Thir-
tenth and E streets, at 1925 o'clock
this morning, at the point of pistol
forced Harry E. Lohmeyer, manager,
and Wayne Birdsell, assistant manager,
to open the safe, took the Sunday re-
ceipts of $4,000 and calmly STROBE out
again, stopping for a moment in the
lobby of the theater to examine the
posters of this weeks bill.
Police, notified of the hold-up few
minutes after his departure, sent out
a flash from headquarters and imme-
diately started combing the downtown
section of the city.
They have a good description from
three youths who saw the man loiter-
ing for about Is minutes in the lobby
of the theater before he entered the
managers Office and who saw him
again when he came out and stopped
to examine the show posters. They
were Charles Wilson, IL Quincy street,
Chevy Chase, Md; Allen Burton, 5406
Connecticut avenue, and John Benson,
107 Bradley Lane, Che ~ Chase.
Manager ColIapses.
Lohmeyer was the only person In
the Office when the bandit entered He
collapsed while telephoning to John
j. Payette. general manager of theaters
for the Stanley Crandall Co., after the
bandit had left the Office. He hit his
head on desk in the Office when he
fell. He was unable to tell of the rob-
berry when police arrived.
Birdsell said he came into the office
and saw a man standing behind Mr..
Lohmeyer, who was down on his knees
before the SAFE
II thought nothing of it until Mr..
Lol1meyer called nae over to him." he
said. "aild said, T am being held up.
Don't make any false moves" Then
the robber, who had both hands in his
side coat pockets, told me to stand
with my face to the. wall beside the
safe.
.'Mr. Lolaneyer funbled with the
safe, which is built IN the wall, but
was SO frightened and nervous he could
not work the combination.
Then the man told me to go to
work on the safe. ] did so and opened
it, Mr.. Lohmeyer standing aside. The
man asked for the money and gave
it. to him. He stuck it under his top
coat
Then he said he wanted five minutes
to get clear Of the building.
I'VE didn't give him that much time.
don't know how long 1t was, but pretty
soon Mr. Lohmeyer went to the tele-
phone and called Mr. Payette."
1.-THE man." Birdsell sid, was about
five feet seven inches tall, wore light
gray top-coat and light gray hat, a
well pressed dark suit and clean linen.
long side-burnS and had just been
shaved"
Birdsell said the bandit did not seem
very much excited about the hold-up
and went through the motions calmly
and as If he knew his business
When police arrived in the Office,
Lohmeyer was lying on the floor and
was being given first aid by Birdsell
and other attendants of the theater.
He was moaning that his head hurt.
He was Immediately placed on a
Stretcher and sent to Emergency Hos
pital in the first precinct police patrol.
Birdsell then told Capt. Thaddeus
Bean of No. precinct the details of
the robbery and the flash was sent out
to the Detective Bureau and to down.
town police precinct stations.
Youths Aid in Hunt.
The three youths who saw the bandit
before and after he entered the man.
ayers office were taken by police
around the downtown section in an
effort to find the man.
The managers Office is inside the
theater, on the orchestra floor, beneath
the gallery stairway. Birdsell explained
that while the theater was not open for
the morning show, which begins at
10:45, the doors had been opened for
theater employees to use. There were
five or six of them employed in the
theater, he said, when the hold-up
occurred, but none of them was near
the Office.
"I had not started work and did
not see the man when he entered"
Birdsell said.
Payette, who arrived on the scene a
few minutes after the police, is of the
opinion that it was a carefully planned
robbery.
This would be the only time of the
day that this sort of robbery could
have been attempted" he said:
Whenever we handle the receipts in
any of our theaters we have a man
outside the locked door of the managers
office to guard against entry.
THE bandit must have picked the
time just before the show opened, when
he knew some one with the combina-
ton to the safe would be in the Office,
to pull the robbery. The whole thing
looks as If he knew our system and
used it to his advantage.