Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1901 — SMELTER IS PLUNDERED. [ARTICLE]

SMELTER IS PLUNDERED.

Pold Thieves Rob Vault of Gold Bricka Worth $280,000. The Selby Smelting works at Vallejo. Cal., were robbed during a recent night of gold bricks admitted by one of the officials to be worth $280,000. Other estimates place the loss as high as $350,000, The robbers conducted their operations with skill, but in their haste to get away left two big gold bricks on the shore of the bay. The robbers had evidently been working on the case for two or threa months. They had dug a tunnel from outside the house, first digging a shaft about three feet deep. Tflen they tunneled in under the-vnult and, striking ui>ward, bored a hole iu the strong room floor. Part of the holes had been bored two months ago, it is thought, and the last one was bored on the night of the robbery. Through that hole they took the gold bricks and carried them to a bank near the tunnel, cast of the works, where they were evidently placed iu a boat. The gold in the bricks is worth $20.00 «n ounce. The two which the robbers left behind are worth about $50,000. In addition to this there was stolen from the bullion vault crude gold iu nil shapes and sizes and some of it in bat's of different lengths. The thieves got all the bullion in the vault, lenviog behind only the two bricks which they dropped on the shore in their haste. Only one day's accumulation of refined gold was kept at the works. The Selby Smelting and Lend Company is the largest concern of its kind on the Pacific coast. Ores are scut from all over the western country to be smeltcrcd and refined and the gold is theu turned over to the mint. A steamer makes special trips between the smelter and San Francisco, carrying the ores one way aud taking back the refined gold. Sheriff Veale of Contra Costa Counter and his deputies and Chief of Police Sunford of Vallejo, ns well ns the police of San Frunciaco aud all the liny cities, nre at work on the casg, hut there is not the slightest clew to the robbers.