Smyrna times., 1931-01-07
YEGGS GET TOOLS FROM R.R.
CLAYTON TO ROB HARTLY BANK
HARTLY BANK ROBBED OF
$4,000 WEDNESDAY MORNING
Burglars Find Town Asleep and
Use Rubber Gloves so That No
Finger Prints Could be Left


needed from the Railroad shops a.
Clayton and various other places
burglars early Wednesday morn
ing broke into the bank of the
West Dover Trust Company al
Hartly and stole all of the money
in the safe including pennies anc
nickles, amounting to apprcXi-
mately $4,000 They also took some
commercial paper which was in
the safe but will be unable to dis
pose of this. There is no clue tc
the burglars. Detective Sergeant
Horace F. Mcdaniel, Of the Will
mington Police Force, a finger
print expert, was called and made
a careful examination of every
thing in the bank but found no
finger prints. He is of the opin-
ion that the burglars wore gloves.
The burglars gained entrance to
the bank by breaking a lock or
the front door, opened a second
door inside. They then cut open
the door of the old-fashioned safe
with an acetylene torch and blew
open the inside door with some
kind of high explosive. An invest
igation was made following the
discovery of the robbery to find
some clue. The various articles
left in the bank We're carefully ex-
amined The crowbar found was
identified as having been stolen
from the Delmarva division tool
house at Clayton. The canvas used
in muffling the explosion when the
inner door of the safe was blown,
was found to have been stolen
from the Queen Anne Railroad tool
house at Queen Anne, Md. A
water bucket found in the bank
had been stolen from the garage
of Sweitzer Brothers, Hartly. The
burglars took the revolver belong
ing to the bank from the cashiers s
desk. The acetylene tank used,
which bore the number K56,343,
has not yet been identified but is
believed to have been stolen the
same as the other articles found
The canvas used was stolen on De
cember 21, the water bucket on
Monday night and the other ar
ticles Tuesday night.
Robbery Found at Bank Opening
The robbery was discovered
Wednesday morning by Marshall
Hart, the cashier who, with a
clerk, constitutes the working
force of the bank. He was ac-
companied at the time by Howard
Schweitzer who is a director of
the bank. They found conditions
as described and at once notified
State Detective C. M. Wharton of
Dover, and State Bank Commits
sioner Harold W.Horsey who went
to Hartly. The State Highway
Police were also notified as we'll as
the police in various cities in the
section. Sergeant Mcdaniel was
at once summoned from Whining
ton to search for finger prints. E.
c. Daily, former member of the
State Legislature, is president of
the bank. AS soon as the finger
print expert and other police had
completed their investigation, the
bank was opened for business as
usual. Money was brought from
Dover bank to meet the needs of
the robbed institution. 1t is be-
lieved that the robbery occurred
sometime after midnight as people
who drove by the bank at that
time saw nothing unusual. The
bank is a small brick structure
and though the building is detach-
ed there are several dwellings
close by. None of the nearby resi-
dents heard the explosion when
the inside door of the safe was
blown. 1t is the opinion of the
police that the men who commit
ted the robbery were professionals
and are the same men who have
robbed a number of places on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Robbery Declared to be Successful
This is declared to be the first
successful bank robbery in Della
ware for at least fifty years or
possibly longer. So far as bank
ing officials know it is the first
successful one. Many years ago
an effort was made to rob the Ma
tional Bank of Delaware in Will
mington but the men making the
attempt were frightened away and
later were captured. They includ-
ed Big Frank" Mccoy and Jim
my" Hope, two of the most famous
burglars of their day. Several
years later an effort was made to
rob bank at New Castle, but the
cashier opened fire with revolver
and several weeks later one of the
men supposed to have been impli
Gated was found dead in the river
with a bullet wound in his mouth
supposed to have been inflicted by
the cashier when he fired at the