Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1919 — CAR REFUSES TO RUN; THIEVES FAIL IN ATTEMPT. [ARTICLE]

CAR REFUSES TO RUN; THIEVES FAIL IN ATTEMPT.

W. C. Babcock came mighty near losing his Hudson automobile some tfine- ’’ and but for . .the fact that, the car refused .feo, ran the thieves would have been well on their way by this tiriie. Mr. Babcock placed -the car in the garage at his home on College avenue about 7 o’clock Wednesday evening, and when he went to get. it the next morning he found that it hdd disappeared. A few momenta later he found it standing in the road at the intersection of College and Milroy avenues, where the thieves had abandoned it. - :■ Mr. Babcock was at first inclined ! to believe that it was simply a prank ' of boys, but later came to the conI elusion that the heavy rain which ' fell until 3 o'clock in the morning i would not have been the kind of a 1 night selected by joy riders for such I a prank. i Mr. Babcock had been driving the car Wednesday afternoon and found the battery and spark plugs in bad condition and it was with difficulty that he was able to drive the car to his home. The thieves had pushed the car from the garage to the road, and it was evident that their attempt at theft was made early in the evening as the tracks were almost obliterated by the rain. Mr. Babcock considers that it was mighty good fortune on his part that the car was not in running order. The same night Robert Reeve, the mail carrier, had two automobile tires stolen from his garage, lending additional evidence that thieves' were plying their trade that night