People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — A BOLD THIEF'S WORK. [ARTICLE]

A BOLD THIEF'S WORK.

H* Grab* a Bu CvataUac ax.no* la Gold la a St. Pool Baak aad ku Fsrap* St. Pact, Minn., Aug. 15.— The St. . Paul bankers are dazed over a. robbery at the First national bank Monday morning in which a man alone was able to seize a $5,000 bag of gold in the presence of twenty people and disappear in a crowd. The police have been searching for him ever since, but there are small prospects that he will be caught. Renaldo Lares, a trusted representative of the Merchants’ national bank, accompanied by L H. Jacobs, porter of the Merchants’, had just come into the First national bank to make a settlement with the clearing house. The funds consisted of three bags containing $5,000 each in gold in a small steel box, and other money, making in all about $20,000. The box was fastened to the porter, Jacobs, by means of handcuffs, and the two men carried the box when on the street between them. When they entered the bank there was nothing unusual noticed in the office. About twenty men stood at the various windows and desks attending to business. Arriving at the teller s window Lares opened the box and re- 1 moving the bags placed them on the ! window ledge at his right side. Ue 1 stood between the post and the window, while the porter, Jacobs, stood at his left, between Lares and the door. Resting the bags for the moment on the ledge. Lares began to pay in the loose money, and was busy with this when he heard a step at his right, and, turning instantly, he saw the robber grab one of the bags and dart around the post toward the door. Lares made a leap and succeeded in reaching the door almost as quickly as the thief and would no doubt have been able to him or at least follow him had not a man. undoubtedly the accomplice as the thief, here interposed by ciowding Lares to the wall and giving the man with the bag a clear sweep. In an instant everything was excitement; the clerks and clearing house men rushed out into the general banking office, but the gold and robbers were as completely gone as though the earth had closed over them.