Year: 1874

They Bind the watchmen and Blow


Open a Safe--S3,5 500 Stolen.


The office of the West Point Foundry
was robbed by masked burglars of some
$3,5O in money and bonds. One of
the watchmen tells the following story
of the affair


1 first went to the Office and stayed in
there until 1925 o'clock. L then went
to an oven in the molding- shop to warm
my tea. AS was in the act of putting
my tin can down before the fire, three
men made their appearance outside.
As came out of the building one of
them stepped up to my left side, one of
the others to the front of me, and the
third one behind me, with a lantern in
his hand. The first man said to me,
Are you firing up?" Ireplied, eyes. 4"
Then he said, "Where is the old man ?"
I asked him, "What old man ?" He
said, "The one that watches with you. !"
[ said L thought he was in the office.
The old mans name is Rodney Roe, a
watchman the same as myself. 1 said
to them, "Do you want him ?" He re-
piled, 81 want you, and you are my
prisoner" Then they seized me and
walked me along to the molding-room.
where they put my hands behind nv
back and strapped them. One of the
men then took round ball out of his
pocket and crammed it into my mouth,
and tied it around my neck with tarred
strings, completely gagging me. They
then set me down and strapped my legs
with new straps in two places, and also
pinioned my arms and tied me to a
heavy casting, and all three left. After
had been left alone five or six minutes
one of them came back to see how I
was getting along. He asked me if I
was all right. L could only humble
something. He then returned to his
comrades who were in the office binding
and gagging the old man. One of them
came back to see how I was, and left
again quickly. Finally they came back
and cut the straps from my legs and
ordered me to stand up. Then they
covered my head with coat. I asked
them as well as [ could, "Where are
you going with me ?" One replied
gruff1y, "You'll know after q while"


I was then led out of doors, and they
walked me into the office to the safe
vault, in which they put me, and shut
the iron door nearly to, leaving it open
just far enough to give me chance to
breathe. [ found Rodney Roe, the other
watchman, in there too. He was also
bound and gagged. We sat on the
vault floor facing each other. While
we were in the vault we heard the rob-
bers endeavoring to break open the safe
on the opposite side of the room. The
safe-vault we were in was used for keep
ing books and papers in. The inner
door is of iron and the outer of wood.
The safe they were breaking into is six
feet high. We'couldn't see the men at
work, but could hear them. They were
apparently hammering the safe with
heavy hammers, and we could hear the
cl1nking of cold -chisels and the grating
of levers, as though they were prying
open the doors. Suddenly they opened
the outer door of the vault we were in
and called out to us to "keep back
from the inner door, as there was going
to be an explosion" Of course we kept
back, and then they shut the outer
door. We heard very slight explosion
soon after, when the outer door of the
vault was again opened, and we heard
one of the burglars say to the other,
" Where is the new fuse, the old fuse is
good for nothing u


We knew then that the first explosion
was failure. We could hear them
charge the safe second time, and very
soon a heavy explosion followed, as
though the front part of the safe was
blown out. We next heard them hand
ling papers, tearing open envelopes,
etc. They were not more than half an
hour doing the latter work when they
again came to the door of the vault, and
opened the outer one, and coming to
the inner door, opened that one little
also, and peered in upon us. I num-
bled to them that I felt faint, and they
opened the door wider. One of them
took sledge hammer and smashed in
one of the wooden panels of the outer
door, and that let the air come in more
freely, but he locked the door. All this
time Mr.. Roe and myself were trying to
get our hands loose. Mr., Roe finally
succeeding, he then loosened mine, but
we did not dare to show that our hands
were free for fear they would kill us.
Presently we heard them gather up
some things and leave the Office, and
we could hear them hurrying away. I
managedt to squeeze through the broken
panel of the outside door, and soon re.
leased Mr.. Roe. Looking about the
office we discovered that o large hole
had been blown in the north door of the
safe, and both doors we're powder
stained and wide open. Scattered
about the floor were torn envelopes, pa
pers, packages, ETC.; also crowbar,
sledge hammer, two cold-ch1sels, fuse,
tarred strings, muslin gags, and punch
es. This was little after 3 A. M, and
as quickly as possible we gave the
alarm, but the robbers had fled. All
were masked.