People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1896 — SUSPICIOUS ROBBERY. [ARTICLE]

SUSPICIOUS ROBBERY.

SAN FRANCISCO BANK THE SUFFERER. Official* Tell a Strange Story of a Daylight Holdup—Polio* Discredit Their Statement and Can Find No Krldeace of the Attempt. San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 19.—The boldest and cleverest robbery known here for some time occurred Tuesday when three masked men entered the Market Street bank and held up the cashier and bookkeeper at the point of pistols, shut them up in the big vault, raked all the coin in sight, and then vanished without leaving a trace behind.

The Market Street bank is a small concern, recently opened in the Spreckels’ building, on Market street, right in the busiest section of the city. Cashier Hopkins and Bookkeeper Hayshorst were the only ones In the bank at 9:45, when three masked men entered. * Pointing their pistols at the heads of the bank employes, the robbers ordered them to throw up their hands. Hayshorst obeyed, but Hopkins endeavored to get a pistol from a drawer. A shot from one of the robbers stopped him, and he threw up his hands. The bullet did not hit the cashier, but the shot was fired at such close rantfle that his face was burned by the powder. The robbers then went behind the counter and hustled their prisoners Into the vault. They shut, but could not lock the doors, and then raked the coin from the money trays Into a sack. No one saw them go in or come out of the bank, and although an officer arrived in less than a minute after the robbery had been committed, not a trace of the thieves could be found. The bank people will not say how much money was taken, but the amount does not exceed S7OO. The police express * doubt that any robbery was committed.