Holiday Crime Wave Sweeps Tacoma
While crowds gathered for the Fourth of July celebration, a brazen spree of burglaries and robberies left residents on edge.
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.
With the boatloads of people flocking to the city for the celebration have come the usual delegation of crooks. Thieves, burglars, and hold-ups are here, and they have been busy. No less than six burglaries and robberies were reported to the police department last night and this morning. In every case, the crook succeeded in getting away with his plunder. One of the exciting burglaries occurred at Dr. Dewey's residence at North Sixth and I streets. The intruder entered the house by picking the lock of a rear door and made his way to the room where Dr. Dewey was sleeping. The physician awoke and grappled with the burglar, but the latter drew a gun and held the physician at bay while he backed down the stairs. The neighborhood was aroused, but the burglar escaped.
“With the boatloads of people flocking to the city for the celebration have come the usual delegation of crooks.”
Public celebrations often coincide with opportunistic crime, a dynamic that remains a persistent challenge for Tacoma's downtown neighborhoods during large events. The 1904 account highlights how quickly the spirit of a holiday can be disrupted by property crimes.
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