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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 28 |
| 1909 | 17 |
46 stories matching safe
- Expert Safe-Cracker Cleans Out Local Dry Goods Store
A thief bypassed heavy security and locks without force, leaving police baffled.
- Safecrackers Blow Kapowsin's Only Safe and Ride the Rails Out
A nitroglycerine charge, a stolen handcar and a $1,200 haul: Pierce County's small-town robbery baffles the sheriff.
- Safe-Crackers Raid Local Steam Laundry
A band of robbers broke into the Tacoma Steam Laundry, held two employees at gunpoint, and used nitroglycerine to blast open the safe.
- The Great Kapowsin Safe Heist
After bandits blew open a safe and vanished into the night, police are left with no clues and a ghost train.
- The Ghost Safe of the Waterfront
A decade after a deadly landslide, amateur divers still hunt for a Northern Pacific warehouse safe lost to the tides.
- Safe Cracked in Kapowsin Timber Raid
Thieves target the North Timber company, escaping with revolvers and a steel box full of negotiable paper.
- Diamond Heist at the Music Store
An employee is arrested in Oakland for fencing a local woman's diamond earrings stolen from a safe.
- A Dazed Traveler Found at the Depot
A woman arrives in Tacoma from the East, seemingly disoriented, and is taken into custody for her own protection.
- The Midnight Cash-Out at the N.P. Bar
A local saloon proprietor vanished with the entire week's payroll just before payday.
- Fifteen Stowaways Discovered in Hyades Cargo Hold
After two weeks at sea, a search of the steamship Hyades revealed fifteen Japanese stowaways hiding among the freight.
- A High-Wire Heist at Ninth and Commerce
Budding criminals scaled a twelve-foot transom to loot a hardware store, only to ignore a massive, unlocked safe in favor of a handful of change.
- Fatal Scuffle at the Bohemian Bar
A local man dies of infection following a rough dispute in a saloon.
- One Punch in a Tacoma Saloon, and Three Days Later a Man Was Dead
A Seattle commercial traveler needled a dog, then a bartender. He walked the streets with a fractured skull for three days before he finally asked for a hospital — and his last coherent claim was that he'd been sandbagged.
- The Midnight Stand of a Ruralita Station Agent
A lone telegraph operator mistakes a visiting railroad superintendent for a robber, turning the tables with a toy revolver in a moment of high tension.
- The War on the Lincoln House
A local wagon manufacturer seeks an injunction against nearby saloons and brothels, claiming they are driving away their customers.
- Tacoma's Shipping Supremacy
While Seattle struggles with bottlenecks, Tacoma's port facilities demonstrate their superior efficiency in moving coal.
- The Road to South Tacoma is a Muddy Mess
Business leaders complain that the main thoroughfare connecting Tacoma to its southern prairie is in such disrepair that it is throttling local trade.
- Fatal Brawl in the Peerless Saloon
A jury has cleared a local bartender of responsibility in the death of a Seattle traveler who died from a head injury sustained during a fight.
- Eleven Years Old, and Out of Promises
A Tacoma police sergeant's stepson confesses to a string of robberies. A Seattle judge sends him to the Chehalis reformatory — after Tacoma courts had twice taken the boy's word that he would be good.
- The Captain Returns from the Dead
Sensational rumors of a shipwreck off Cape Flattery vanish as the captain of the schooner Ella sails safely into Tacoma.
- Tacoma’s Crumbling Infrastructure
Public Works Commissioner William Welsh warns that over a dozen city bridges are rotting and unsafe for public travel.
- Tacoma Women Rally for Public Playgrounds
Prominent clubwomen push for safe, supervised spaces to keep city children off dangerous streets.
- The Mystery of the Switchman’s Missing Fortune
A wealthy rail switchman dies before he can reveal the location of his life savings, which he carried in two mysterious suitcases.
- The Dream of the $250 Car
A 1909 prediction of the automobile's future imagines a world where the middle class owns the road.
- The Hidden Cost of Tacoma’s Water Crisis
While public officials downplay safety, local physicians warn that Clover Creek is contaminated by sewage and fueling a typhoid outbreak.