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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 5 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 1 |
15 stories matching chisel
- A $23.25 Haul and a Very Patient Safe-Cracker
Burglars peeled a window, drilled the door and chiseled the combination at A. C. Fry's produce store on the Seattle waterfront.
- Home Burglarized While Family Attends Church
A bold break-in at a Seattle residence highlights a spike in property crime.
- The Burglar Who Knew the Layout
A gambler is arrested after allegedly breaking into a boarding house and cleaning out trunks with a chisel.
- Sunday Sabbath Burglary on University Street
A resident returns home from church to find his house ransacked and sixty dollars missing.
- A Shootout on Front Street
An attempted arrest of two suspected thieves ends in a violent exchange of gunfire near the waterfront.
- The Vanished Prize
A glass jar filled with cash, intended for a public guessing contest at a downtown shop, was plucked from a storefront window in a clever, late-night heist.
- The Great Jailbreak Attempt of 1888
A desperate group of prisoners, including a local forger and a pair of Vancouver burglars, came within thirty minutes of freedom before being thwarted by a vigilant guard.
- The Trial of the Torture Chamber Dentist
A Seattle woman takes her dentist to court, claiming his efforts to fit a set of false teeth were physically abusive and useless.
- Caught Red-Handed: A Midnight Grocery Heist
A burglar's attempt to crack open a downtown Seattle grocery store was thwarted by an alert clerk sleeping just upstairs.
- The Salvage of the Mississippi
After four months of struggle, wreckers are forced to dismantle the sunken collier piece by piece.
- The 'Chisel' Game: How Seattle's Working Class Fought Labor Exploitation
A scathing report from 1887 reveals the corrupt 'ticket' system that allowed middlemen to siphon wages from laborers—a century-old echo of modern gig-economy wage theft.
- The Jailbreak of the Electrician Who Sabotaged the City's Power
After serving months in prison for destroying the Seattle Electric Light Company’s equipment, a disgruntled former employee walked out of the mill in borrowed clothes.
- The Concordia Beer Hall Heist
A cool-headed band of thieves broke into a Seattle saloon, cracked the safe, and held an impromptu dinner party with stolen beer and cigars before vanishing.
- Seattle’s First Great Street: How Denny Hill Became Front Street
In March 1877, the city is racing to finish the brutal grading of Front Street, transforming a muddy slope into Seattle’s first grand thoroughfare.
- The Burglar Who Wanted a Razor Before Walla Walla
Richard H. Ford, a self-styled 'famous burglar' with a morphine habit, was shipped off to the state penitentiary—after begging for a shave and trying to dig through the jail floor.