Daylight Burglary at Minor School
A bold thief locks themselves inside a Chestnut Street home to clear out jewelry while children played across the alley.
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.
The residence of N. H. Thedinga on Chestnut street, near Division, was burglarized Thursday afternoon in broad daylight and jewelry valued at about $400 was taken. The house is just across the street from the Minor school, and Mrs. Thedinga had no hesitation in leaving it alone after locking it up securely. In her absence and while the children, who had come home from school in the meantime, were playing just across the alley, the house was entered through a back door by means of a skeleton key. The burglar or burglars evidently locked themselves in while they did the work, for one of the children tried the back door at one time and found it locked on the inside, and the front door was bolted on the inside when found after the thieves had gone. A purse containing a small sum of money and some bank books was emptied and the money stolen, and a bureau drawer containing the jewelry mentioned was ransacked and the jewelry stolen. Nothing else was disturbed. Two hard-looking men called at the house two days before and asked for work, but when told there was none, did not leave at once, but hung around some time. It is supposed they are the burglars.
“The burglar or burglars evidently locked themselves in while they did the work.”
The Minor School once stood near Chestnut and Division (now essentially the area of the Minor neighborhood/First Hill). While the specific building is long gone, the anxiety of a secure, locked home being infiltrated in broad daylight remains a quintessential urban fear, echoing modern concerns about property crime in densely populated neighborhoods.
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