Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1907 — UNFAITHFUL SEERVANT [ARTICLE]

UNFAITHFUL SEERVANT

Sold His Employers* Goods to Other Merchants Who Knew He Was a Thief. WILL THEY GO UNWHIPT ? Looks That Way Except as to One Whoso Bank Account Was Small—State Items, M,uncle, Ind., Aug. 2S. Muncie merchants whose names are known to the police, but not to the public as yet, fear they are to be indicted on charges of receiving stolen property, as the result of the unearthing, apparently, of a conspiracy between them and Ira Thornburg, a driver for Hotter Bros., meat dealers. Thornburg is In jail and has eoufessed that while acting as agent for the Hoffers he has stolen hundreds of dollars’ worth of lard and meats and has sold these to retail meat dealers and grocers at a price less than the wholesale rate. Says They Knew He Stole the Goods. William Nelson, manager of the Durst case, is also under arrest on the charge of receiving stolen goods, because of his having accepted, as alleged, large quantities of lard and ham from Thornburgatabsurdly low prices, knowing the goods had been stolen. Thornburg not only has confessed, but he has Implicated the dealers who bought the goods of him. saying they knew the materials were stolen, but were anxious to obtain the great profit that accrued to them by buying so cheaply. Have Made Good to Hotter. Some of these merchants, if not all, are well known. Most of them have been able to raise the money they are accused of cheating the Hotter firm out of, and, as far as the Hoffers are concerned, will not be prosecuted, but the state may take a hand In prosecuting them any way. One grocer is said to have been compelled to mortgage bis home In order to “make good.” The state Is said to believe It to be unfair to prosecute Nelson, the case manager, ■Who did not have the money to restore bis alleged ill-gotten profits to the men he had defrauded and to allow the others who have the money, to go free. How Thornburg Did the Trick, ' Thornburg at times drove one of tbe big delivery wagons of Hotter Bros. In addition to doing a wholesale business, the Hoffers have two large re- *>' ' ’ •-* •-* 'V,' ' '

tail stores of their own. By means of "juggling” his meat deliveries between these stores Thornburg was able to filch many hundred of dollars’ worth of goods which he disposed of at low prices to men who, he declares, were “in” with him on the deal. Nelson has been married only a few weeks and bis bride is prostrated by her husband’s arrest