The Bodega Saloon Heist
Two former A.D.T. messenger boys used their old badges to trick a saloon into handing over free liquor.
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.
Tom Copp, aged 14 years, and John Shields, aged 16 years, are locked up in police headquarters on the charge of petit larceny. It is claimed by Detective Roberts, who has worked up the case, that the boys, who were formerly A.D.T. messenger boys, went into the Bodega saloon on Front street and, by showing badges, obtained $7.50 worth of liquor under the pretense that it was for Billy Visher. The order proved to be mythical, and investigation resulted in the arrest of Copp and Shields. The boys have been identified at the saloon as the parties who obtained the liquor. Tom Copp has been in two other scrapes involving petty offenses, but his size has always helped him out. Copp was implicated with Frank Hutchinson in stealing sacks from Dr. P.B.M. Miller's barn, and two weeks ago the judge suspended sentence, allowing the boy his liberty. Copp is a small, dried-up bit of humanity, but has an old face. He has caused his people considerable anxiety and trouble.
“Copp is a small, dried-up bit of humanity, but has an old face.”
Youth crime was treated with a mix of moralizing pity and incarceration in the 1890s. The 'Bodega Saloon' on Front Street—now Alaskan Way—serves as a reminder that Seattle's waterfront has always been a site where illicit economies and juvenile delinquency intersect.
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