The Housewife Who Hunted a Burglar
After weeks of missing groceries, a Seattle woman takes matters into her own hands with a Colt revolver.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. Frank L. Mefford, wife of a special officer, became the heroine of an encounter with a petty thief early Friday morning on Twenty-second Street. Having noticed table supplies going missing from her back porch over several weeks, Mrs. Mefford grew determined to catch the culprit. Returning home at 10 p.m. on Thursday, she spotted a shadow in the yard and decided to wait in ambush with her husband's .38-caliber Colt revolver. After two hours of watching through the glass-paneled door, she saw a man enter the yard, help himself to a can of oil, then return for a tub of butter and a jar of horseradish. Mrs. Mefford rushed outside; as the thief fled, she fired three shots. One bullet caused the man to howl in pain as he collided with a clothesline and abandoned his loot. Despite a neighborhood search, the intruder escaped, though locals are convinced he was struck by the final shot.
“The very coolness of the man made Mrs. Mefford angry. She thought of the butter, eggs and meat that she had missed within the past few weeks.”
Package theft remains a persistent frustration for Seattle residents today, though few would recommend pursuing porch pirates with a handgun. The neighborhood described, Twenty-second Street, was a growing residential area at the time, reflecting the same vulnerability residents feel when their private property is repeatedly targeted.
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