Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — STAMP LOOT $74,610. [ARTICLE]

STAMP LOOT $74,610.

BURGLARS TUNNEL INTO THE CHICAGO POSTOFFICE. < Plunder of 700 Pounds Taken A way in a Wagon—Safe -in Which There Was $630,000 Barely Missed Biggest Robbery on Record. Thieves entered the vault of the wholesale department of the Chicago postofficq between Saturday evening and Monday morning and accomplished the biggest 'postage stamp robbery on record. They secured $74,610 in stamps of various denominations and escaped. Skill, inegnuity and wonderful endurance were required successfully to carry out the plans that evidently had carefully been laid. Two brick walls, each two feet thick, were tunneled through, and a hole nineteen inches square was made in the bottom of the steel vault. They took from the vault booty enough to load a goodsized wagon and drove away. Entered Through Tunnel. Entrance to the vault was gained through a tunnel which had been left in the construction of the postoffice. Entering the basement of the postoffice from the southeast corner of the building, they followed the windings of a tunnel between piers and posts that support the structure. They had to go nearly across the entire space covered by the postoffice until they reached the stamp vault on the west side. With a drill they perforated the castiron bottom at the safe and knocked out a piece large enough to make a space to admit a man. The rest of the work was easy. With six men it would have been necessary to make several trips to and from the wagon to despoil the vault of its treasure. The robbers did their work well, not a stamp being overlooked. Within a few feet of them was the cash safe containing a greater fortune in currency than was represented in the stamps that were stolen. The stamps were placed in a wagon that was driven to the southeast corner of the postoffice and out of sight of any prying eyes from Michigan avenue. Postoflice officials and Chicago detectives are open in their belief that men who knew the postoffice and the nature of its construction had a hand in the robbery. This theory is borne out by the course followed by the robbers. The space between the floor of the postofficc and the ground is crowded with posts, piers and piles of earth, which give to it the appearance of being tunneled iu several directions. To reach the vault from the point of entrance it is necessary to follow a course which no man could trace, unless he had gone over it several times. The tunnel followed by the thieves branches into innumerable courses. Robbery a Difficult One. It was not without difficulty that the robbery was accomplished. The location of the safe and the trip from the point of entrance were the least difficult. Arrived at the spot over which they had assumed the vault to be the men found their way barred by a piece of flooring and a large box. They cut a hole through this floor and then found that a big box barred further progress. This was large enough to require the strength of more than one man to remove it. It was thrown to one side, however, and the rest was easy. The sharp drill was brought into play against the. iron floor of the vault. The work of perforating the iron required work of hours. Nearly half a hundred of the bores were necessary before the burglars could knock the piece out. It is supposed that one man worked in the vault and passed the stamps out to his accomplices.