Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1904 — SAFEBLOWERS AT WORK. [ARTICLE]

SAFEBLOWERS AT WORK.

Wreck Postoffice at Hanna, Ind., and Then Flee in Stolen Rig. Safe blowers wrecked the postoffice building and safe at Hanna, Ind., late Monday night, secured SI,OOO in cash And postage stamps, stole a horse and buggy and eluded pursuers. Hamm is about forty miles southeast of Chicago. It is a village of 600 population. The postmaster at Hanna is G. A. Trigger, who also conducts a general merchandise business. His store, a frame building, is the largest structure in Hanna. Three explosions, coming in rapid suctession, shook the village shortly before midnight and broke the window glass in dwellings nearest the postoffice. Too frightened at first to move, the villagers hesitated long enough to permit the safe blowers to dash from the building and drive toward Chicago in a buggy they had stolen from a farmer. Dynamite was the explosive used by the robbers. What method was used to penetrate the safe is not known to the postmaster, as his place is almost a total wreck. It is thought that the dynamite was placed about the safe and set off with percussion caps and a fuse. The stolen horse and buggy were hidden in an alley a block distant from the wrecked building.