The Teenager Who Stole a Shotgun for a Souvenir
A local rancher tracked his stolen firearm all the way to Ephrata after a brazen daytime theft from his cabin.
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.
One morning about three weeks ago, G. G. Moore left his ranch to go to Allard for his mail. He was gone only about an hour, but during that time someone had visited his cabin and carried away his new $100 shotgun, probably as a souvenir of the visit. Mr. Moore refused to see the joke and immediately asked the authorities to assist him in running down the culprit. He was traced to different places and finally apprehended at Ephrata. He turned out to be a young man about 17 years old who had been in the vicinity of Allard a short time just prior to the disappearance of the gun. The gun was recovered although it is reported to have been somewhat damaged.
“Mr. Moore refused to see the joke and immediately asked the authorities to assist him in running down the culprit.”
Property crime in remote areas remains a persistent local concern, though the modern scale of personal theft often differs from the era when a $100 shotgun was considered a significant, portable asset worth chasing across the county.
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