STORE AND SAFE BURGLARS.

STORE AND SAFE BURGLARS.

A MAJORITY of heavy stores and safe burglaries perpetrated in this country have been committed between Saturday night and Monday morning. Thus, the cracksmen had plenty of time, a day and two nights, to wrestle with the intricate combination of a strong vault, or select, gather and pack up for removal the costliest goods. 

These rogues are but a grade below the bank burglar, and an expert store-safe robber is always looked upon as a most important acquisition by those men who band themselves together for the purpose of plundering the coffers of moneyed institutions. Some store burglars are men of fair education, but those who spend their lifetime operating in the lower degrees in that line are coarse and dull, still in planning and executing a theft they display considerable shrewdness. 

Thieving to this class seems to be simply a natural trait, and they are not at all anxious to rise to higher grades of crime. When the store-safe burglar ascertains that a certain business firm is in the habit of keeping a large sum of money in their safe he determines to rifle it. Before the establishment closes on Saturday, one or two members of the band manage to conceal themselves in an empty room or packing-box on the premises, and when the building has been closed for the night the men leave their hiding-place and admit their confederates. 

The door is locked again, and the cracksmen lose no time getting to work upon the stock or safe. These robbers vary in their manner of operating. Some people steal silks, velvets, silverware, jewelry, diamonds, coins, or cash.  The sort of plunder taken indicates the standing of the thieves. In the carrying off of bulky booty great risks are run, but the men who steal cash have but little to fear except discovery just as they are leaving the scene of their crime. This rarely happens, and should they be afterwards arrested for the burglary there is but little chance of ever legally fastening the offense upon them.

The most reckless of the safe robbers use explosives, but patient and careful operator either manipulates the combination or noiselessly wrecks the vault by leverage. The men who resort to explosives are known to their associates as "blowers." They are daring and desperate fellows and acquainted with the drill and high explosives. It is a hazardous undertaking to shatter a safe in a large city, for the noise which follows an explosion makes the "blower's" chances of success slim and detection many. 

In sleepy country towns, where there is no police patrol system, these men still manage, however, to make an occasional haul. the use The rattle made by a train on the Third Avenue Elevated railroad one night, seven years ago, deadened the noise made by the blowing off the doors of two safes in a post-office station along that line. The noise made by the jolting of empty milk cans on a cart, which was purposely driven through a down-town street, led to like results. 

In a neighboring city, but a few years ago, on a Fourth of July, a gang of "blowers" undertook to shatter a safe in a jewelry store, while a confederate was exploding several packs of large firecrackers for the amusement of a few children who had assembled in front of the place. Too large a charge of powder had been placed in the safe, and when the fuse had been ignited a tremendous explosion followed. The panes of glass were blown out of the front windows, and the vault was badly wrecked. The explosion, which was louder than expected, instantly attracted attention, and the robbers ran away in the hope of escaping. They were pursued and captured.