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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 2 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1863 | 3 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 28 |
| 1877 | 21 |
| 1878 | 19 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 7 |
| 1882 | 5 |
| 1883 | 18 |
| 1884 | 11 |
| 1885 | 23 |
| 1886 | 12 |
| 1887 | 16 |
| 1888 | 11 |
| 1889 | 39 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 23 |
| 1892 | 51 |
| 1893 | 52 |
| 1894 | 60 |
| 1895 | 81 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 6 |
| 1899 | 10 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 20 |
| 1904 | 30 |
| 1905 | 3 |
| 1907 | 2 |
| 1908 | 8 |
| 1909 | 33 |
| 1910 | 4 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 2 |
| 1915 | 6 |
| 1916 | 13 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 6 |
| 1924 | 3 |
| 1925 | 1 |
649 stories matching safe
- 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 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.
- The Great Seattle Fire of 1889: Surviving the Flames
While the city turned to ash, local business owners turned to their safes to see what remained of their livelihood.
- The Haunted Cabin That Killed Twice
A Texas rancher’s murder mystery travels north to Washington, where a cowboy finds himself accused of killing his partner in the exact spot—and with the same knife—that vanished from a prosecutor's safe.
- Safe-Crackers Strike Yakima Avenue
A late-night robbery ends in a shattered safe and a series of bungled arrests.
- The Olympia Safe Heist and the Culture of Corruption
A government agent discovered a $39,000 deficit in the Olympia sub-treasury, only for the missing funds to vanish entirely after the agent allegedly returned control to the defaulting official.
- The Safe Crackers of La Conner
In a town unaccustomed to such violence, burglars blast open a general store safe, signaling a new era of criminal sophistication.
- Divers Hunting a Sunken Safe Find a Watchman in the Harbor
While searching Tacoma harbor for a Northern Pacific safe and $14,000, Seattle divers uncovered the body of William Hansen, drowned months earlier when the pump house went down in a Thanksgiving landslide.
- The Safe-Crackers Caught at Breakfast
After robbing a Seattle safe with a loud explosion, two burglars were tracked by a U.S. Marshal to a hollow near Snohomish, where they were found cooking their morning meal alongside their loot.
- A Costly Penny-Pinching Heist
Local burglars use high-grade explosives to crack an unlocked safe at a lumber company, netting exactly five cents in copper.
- Expert Safe-Cracker Cleans Out Local Dry Goods Store
A thief bypassed heavy security and locks without force, leaving police baffled.
- Fifteen Minutes and the Whole Town Core Was Gone
A flue fire in the Hotel Sedro kitchen took the Pioneer Block with it — the council chambers, the bank, the druggist and the newspaper, all in one afternoon.
- Safe-Cracking Ring Brought to Justice
Four suspects, believed to be part of an organized safe-blowing gang, are in jail after a chase involving the robbery of a Kennewick lumber company.
- A Wedge, a Brace, and a Glasgow Letter: Burglars Crack Lowell Safe
Thieves drilled Meader & Buckley's store safe, taking post-office money and a $90 letter from Scotland, and a sheriff saw the hand of a serial safe-cracker.
- The River Pirates of Pine Street
Two young men were caught in the act of trying to break into a safe stolen from the wreck of a burned steamboat on the Seattle waterfront.
- 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.
- Safe Cracked, Bloodhounds Baffled in Newport Burglary
Thieves work a safe for $100 in gold and currency, then vanish toward Halford addition despite a packed manhunt.
- The Morning Glory Fizzle
A group of Vancouver Southern sympathizers attempted to print a campaign paper in Portland, only to have their equipment and their vanity locked away in a safe they couldn't open.
- Bold Daylight Heist at the Puget Sound & Alaska Steamship Company
A safe on the Yesler wharf is emptied of over $170 in cash during the lunch hour.
- The Safe-Crackers of Princeton
After a string of brazen robberies in Princeton and Coulee City, detectives use decoys to bait a trap for the thieves.
- 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-Crackers Raid Dayton Saloon
Thieves bypass the law and a saloon vault, walking away with silver and a taste for the house's best whiskey.
- The Missing Will That Would Have Given Seattle a Library
Henry Yesler's widow and two doctors are arrested, accused of burning a will that left the pioneer's fortune—and his mansion—to the city.
- The Night a Streetcar Powerhouse Fire Left Half of Seattle Dark
A pre-dawn blaze at Fifth and Pine gutted the Consolidated Street Railway plant, destroyed nearly all its cars and dynamos, crippled three lines, and blacked out everything north of Pike Street.
Also about this, in other words
- The Only Safe Trust: Chauncy M. Depew’s Warning to Seattle Investors
Railroad magnate and former Senator Chauncy Depew tells a Seattle audience that the government must regulate trusts, predicting that 'rotten' companies will fail while others are placed on a proper basis.
- Professional Safe-Crackers Nabbed in Pasco
A trio of traveling criminals accused of looting the Richland post office were apprehended by authorities after a spree of alleged continent-wide heists.
- The Dangerous Business of Storing Explosives
After a close call with a keg of nitro-glycerine on a city street, Seattle officials scramble to regulate the volatile cargo moving through the docks.
- Diving for the Lost Safe of the Northern Pacific
A salvage operation is underway in Tacoma harbor to recover a sunken safe containing $14,000 in cash and documents.
- Safe-Crackers Nabbed in Pasco After Richland Heist
Three men were apprehended in Pasco, Washington, suspected of orchestrating a professional burglary at the Richland post office.
- The Deadly Cost of Ignoring Fire Safety
Tragedy strikes a Seattle boarding house as terrified residents leap from windows, exposing the city's lack of building safety regulations.
- The Struggle for Safe Passage on the Sound
A local captain makes the case for mandatory pilotage to prevent costly shipwrecks in the foggy straits.
- The 'Specialists' of First Avenue
A predatory medical institute promises secret cures for 'youthful indiscretions' and 'lost vitality' from their downtown Seattle office.