The Berlin Building Burglary
A basement billiard room is hit for a few cigars and a handful of change after a thief hurls a rock through the front door.
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 billiard room in the basement of the Berlin building, at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Eleventh Street, was broken into at an early hour this morning. A small amount of change, amounting to $2 that was in a sack in the bottom of the cigar case, and a few cigars were taken. The thief gained entrance to the building by breaking the plate glass in the front door with a piece of rock, then reached through the opening and unfastened the spring lock. A piece of rock was found on the floor this morning, and it is surmised that the thief hurled it through the door and then waited to see if the noise attracted any attention before he entered. A small amount of change is usually left in the cigar case every night to begin business with in the morning, and it is supposed that the thief watched the placing of the money there last night and returned with the expectation of making a big haul.
“A piece of rock was found on the floor this morning, and it is surmised that the thief hurled it through the door and then waited to see if the noise attracted any attention.”
The Berlin Building was a fixture of early Tacoma’s downtown commerce, standing on the corner of Pacific and 11th. Today, this stretch of Pacific Avenue has shifted from local billiard parlors to a mix of high-density housing and revitalized commercial space, but the vulnerability of storefront glass remains a familiar headache for downtown business owners.
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