A Messenger Boy, a Pawned Watch, and Badge No. 21
Detective Philbrick traced a stolen gold watch through Seattle pawnshops to a 17-year-old messenger who confessed to taking it while a woman slept.
Through clever detective work on the part of Detective Philbrick another grand larceny, possibly burglary case, has been solved and the guilty party lodged in the city jail. Chief of Police Rogers had a pleasant conversation with the prisoner last evening and as a result he has a full confession in addition to the stolen goods.
About a week ago a sneak thief entered the sleeping room of Miss A. C. Leonard at 221 Columbia street and while the occupant was asleep stole from a table a gold watch and $4 in cash. The matter was reported to the police and Detective Philbrick was detailed to work up the case. By diligent search he discovered the watch in a pawn shop where it had been pledged for $9, although it was well worth $50. The detective found out that the person who brought in the watch was a boy and that he had a messenger badge numbered 21.
The ingenuity displayed by the boy in dealing with the broker was evident from the beginning. First he came in with a note, supposed to be from a woman, he representing the messenger, in which it was stated that she wanted $12 on the watch. The broker would not give more than $8, so the boy went out and soon came back with another note in which it was said the sum of $8 was entirely too low. Finally as a compromise the boy took $9.
Philbrick went after messenger No. 21 and then discovered that that badge was a stolen one, and every time he got a boy with it on, he had the wrong boy. There seemed to be a sort of a circle among the messenger boys in which that badge traveled. After running down six boys Philbrick finally got hold of Harry England, aged 17 years, and the pawnbroker recognized him.
The boy had nothing to say for a while but last evening told the whole story to Chief Rogers and promised to return a small fob chain which was attached to the watch.
The chief has not placed any charge against the boy, as it is not certain whether he should be tried for burglary or grand larceny. England is nothing more than what is commonly termed a 'fly kid.'
“There seemed to be a sort of a circle among the messenger boys in which that badge traveled.”
The case turns on a very Seattle infrastructure of its day: messenger boys, pawnshops and a shared badge that let suspicion circulate like a borrowed bicycle. Modern package-theft and stolen-goods investigations still wrestle with the same question — how to link a low-value street theft to a named suspect when the tools of the trade are passed around.
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