Sneak Thief Enters Basement Through Rear Window and Pilfers Cash and Checks Secreted in Potato Bin for “Safe Keeping.” Alleged Slipshod Methods of “Planfing” Money in Receptacles Believed to Have Proved Too Great a Temptation.

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A leather bag containing a total of $554.42 in currency, coins and checks, which represented Saturday’s receipts, disappeared from a potato bin in the basement of the Consumers store on North Minnesota street, sometime between 10:30 o’clock, Saturday night, and 9 o’clock Monday morning, according to information given to Chief of Police Alwin Harmening by the local manager of the store, shortly after the disappearance had been discovered. Of the missing amount, $277.73 was in currency and coins,while the balance represents the face value of checks.

Nothing Else Disturbed.

An examination of the premises revealed the fact that someone had entered the basement through a rear window, after removing some thin boards that had been nailed over the opening resulting from a broken pane. He might have been in the store, when it was closed and left the building in that manner.

The intruder evidently knew just where to look for the cache, as nothing else was disturbed, and only the bag and its contents was missing. The money had been placed in the potato bin for “safe keeping,” Saturday night.

Alleged Slipshod Methods.

It is said that rather slipshod methods have been employed in secreting considerable sums of money in merchandise bins and other receptacles in the store. Compartments containing the store’s supplies of rice, coffee, beans, sugar, etc., have alternately been used as caches for funds received in the course of business, it is said. These “deposit vaults’ have apparently been regarded as secure as a safe, but the loot obtained a few days ago would be ample to provide a more dependable “strong box.”

Authorities Busy.

What the owners of the store have saved in not providing better safety for its funds, the taxpayers of Brown county will now be asked to make up by paying for the prosecution of the party who may be held responsible for the theft. The local and county authorities are busy trying to ferret out the guilty person. Up to the time of going to press, yesterday afternoon, no arrest had been made.

Brown County Journal,

Feb. 27, 1925

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