Summer Beach Cottages Targeted by Thieves
A teacher at Tacoma Public Schools loses $300 in silverware as prowlers return to the Quartermaster Harbor beaches.
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.
Prowlers are again operating among the summer homes of the beaches along the edge of Quartermaster Harbor. The latest report is that someone recently entered the cottage of Miss Mary Campbell, a drawing instructor in the Tacoma public schools, and carried off practically all valuable articles. The loss amounts to about $300. The principal loss is that of a quantity of silverware. Other minor reports of thefts from the Quartermaster beaches reach the ears of the Tacoma police from time to time, but they are powerless to do more than watch for the appearance of stolen articles in the city. Newport Beach, where Miss Campbell's cottage is located, is in King County, and the matter has been reported to the officials of that county.
“Other minor reports of thefts from the Quartermaster beaches reach the ears of the Tacoma police from time to time, but they are powerless to do more than watch for the appearance of stolen articles.”
Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island remains a place of leisure and seasonal living, though the 'summer cottage' crime wave of 1909 reminds us that the tension between seasonal wealth and local security is as old as the islands themselves. While the police jurisdictional disputes between Tacoma and King County have long since been smoothed out, the vulnerability of remote recreational property remains a familiar concern for modern island residents.
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