The Curious Case of the Jailbird Burglar
An enterprising thief escaped jail, went on a suburban burglary spree, and was promptly caught while trying to swipe silverware.
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.
Last Monday night, the boarding house of Chas. Olsen, on the east side of the Wishkah, was raided by a burglar who seemed to have a predilection for watches. He got away with one watch but passed by a pocketbook containing $60 or $70. He then visited Natwick’s and Hugo’s houses, securing three more watches. Tuesday morning, the youngest Miss Jackson saw a strange man enter L.W. Herrick’s residence on I Street. When Mrs. Herrick returned, she heard silverware rattling in the woodshed. She discovered a man wrapping her silver in burlap. He fled after a confrontation, but was later captured under the Cathcart building. The prisoner was identified as a man named Daniels, who had escaped from the jail less than half an hour earlier while Officer Smith had the other prisoners scrubbing the floors. Daniels was in the midst of serving a ten-day sentence for drunkenness when he made his escape.
“He was in search of Daniels, who had been making the best of his time collecting souvenir spoons, that fad having taken a strong hold on his fancy.”
This 1891 incident captures the raw, rough-and-tumble reality of Aberdeen’s early development, where jail security was loose and property crime was an immediate civic annoyance. The 'I Street' mentioned in the text remains a recognizable part of the city’s residential grid today.
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