A CLEVER CRIME

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 69, 19 September 1932, Page 7

A CLEVER CRIME

CHICAGO BANK ROBBERY

CHICAGO, sth September.

Master criminals, the Chicago police authorities declare, must have planned the £200,000 robbery at the Koch'bank here. .

The amount of loot is almost the largest in the history of Chicago crime, having been exceeded only by the raid on the warehouse of, Werner.Brothers, ten years ago, when valuables worth more than £200,000 were stolen. The police are convinced that, although only two bandits were seen by the tenants of the premises in which the bank is situated, probably ten were engaged altogether, as the task of cutting through steel and bricks to the saf e_ deposit vaults' would require the services of a considerable gang. The only two men seen worked cleverly and quickly,- being successful in isolating eleven people on two floors of the building, to enable their confederates to work without interruption. The Chicago police at headquarters, though they did not know it, were in touch with the thieves all through the fourteen hours during which the bandits were at work and the tenants were held captive in bathrooms. The caretaker, Bobert Kruse, who had admitted the two seen bandits on their production ; of supposed police badges, always kept his wireless set tuned in for calls from the police office. One of the robbers sat patiently listening in for the entire fourteen hours.

Acetylene torches were used to cut a hole giving access to the strong-room, where 350 deposit boxes were Tifled, a card index being used as a guide. Two of the boxes contained £10,000 each. Only money was taken; bonds and jewellery were thrown aside.