Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1888 — Burglars Who Burgle. [ARTICLE]

Burglars Who Burgle.

A Bom Sale Robbery! Considerable excitement was occasioned last Sunday morning by the knowledge that the safe of J. J. Eiglesbacii, the butcher, had been broken open and robbed, during the prec ding night, by burglars. The fust person to discover evidence of the burglary was John D. Bissenden, who happened to look into the shop, in the morning, through the front window, and saw a brace lying on the counter. The matter looked suspicious, and Mr. Eiglesbacii wns sent for. On arriving ho found that the thieves had entered his shop through a rear window, had drilled a hole into the door of his safe, just at the right place to strike the mechanism of the combination lock, and with a punch and a sledge hammer had broken the lock to pieces. They also broke off the metallic knob, by which the combination w r as operated, There was no inner door 1 to the safe but inside was a locked drawer in which money and valuable papers were kept. The lock of this was broken and the box itself removed. It was found in the morning, in 0. C. Starr's barn not far from the window by which the robbers entered the meat shop. The papers were found but the cash 3ome 8200 to 8225 was, of course, all taken. The tools, by the means o? which the robbery was .effected, had been obtained from Yeoman & Hemphill’s blacksmith shop, and were found scattered about the room where used. They consisted r of a sledge-ham-mer, brace, cold-chisel, pinchers &g. The drills and punch could not be found and are suppose 3 to have belonged to the thieves and carried with them. Access to the blacksmith shop w r as obtained through a back window. The thieves must have made considerable noise during their work, but no one seems to have heard aught of it —not even the night-watch, who claims tcThave passed the simp, repeatedly, durivig the late hours of bhe night. In regard to this statement it may be explained 'that T. P. Haus, the baker, locked diligently for the night-watch, about one o’clock, Sunday morning, but did not find him. Haus had gone to the river, as usual, to look for fishing, and his suspicions were aroused by seeing an open window in Sayler’a livery stable, with a ladder leaning against it. La ter he saw two men on the street and one iff the alley behind the Nowels House, behaving in a suspicious manner. So far as reported there is no clue as to the identity of the rob- ] bers, and opinions differ as to whether the job was done by skillful professionals, from elsewhere, or was the work of some resident scoundrels. If it was the work of amatuers, they seem, at least, to have had a pretty intimate knowledge of the inner mechanism of the safe. They apparently knew just where and how to go to work, to get into the safe in the quickest and easiest manner*. The loss of this much cash is severely felt by Mr. Eiglesbacii, the more so because it is only about a year since ho was robbed of $180; on the .street.