The Night They Were Left in the Brush: A Highway Robbery on Third Avenue
Two desperate men held up three victims at gunpoint near the Union Trunk Hotel, binding them in the cold wet brush while a fourth escaped. One victim’s wife walked within twenty feet of the scene, unaware her husband was lying bound nearby.
Desperate Work of Highwaymen.
TWO MEN WHO HAD BEEN IN THE CITY A FEW DAYS AND HAD NO MONEY LAST NIGHT HIT UPON A PLAN TO RAISE THE FUNDS. THEY ASSAULTED 11, AND CONCLUDED TO ASK THE AMOUNT BY HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
Two hours later they had held up three men and attempted to hold up a fourth.
The highwaymen took up their station on Third Avenue, near the corner of the old Union Trunk Hotel, and waited for some to leave the cars. V.T. Sander was the first man to fall victim. When Sander was stuck under his nose he held up his hand, and $15 was taken from him all that he had. It was put into the bushes, his hands tied behind him with his silk suspenders, and he left with instructions not to move on pain of having his head blown off.
Sander wanted to cry out, but the highwaymen said they were afraid he would spread the alarm, and so, since they were not through work, he would have to wait. The next victim, who declined to give his name, was relieved of a sum less than $15. He was tied to the plan where Sander lay, and was bound fast left.
The third man was H.H. Corbett, an employee of the Union Trunk Line, who lost $10 and a gold watch. While these three men were lying bound, they heard the thieves assault a fourth victim. This man, however, took to his legs and got away. The highwaymen escaped, leaving their three victims in the brush, shivering with cold and wet to the skin.
Corbett finally worked his hands loose and then unbound his companions. They reported the affair to the police, but no arrests have yet been made.
While the three men lay bound in the brush, Mrs. Corbett, expecting her husband, walked along the path toward the corner line with a lantern to meet him. She passed safely and came within twenty feet of her husband, but the thieves did not attack her, so Corbett made no outcry and the woman was happily in ignorance of the incident until it was all over.
This 1902 robbery on Third Avenue highlights the precarious nature of urban safety before modern policing and street lighting. The detail of Mrs. Corbett walking within twenty feet of her bound husband without realizing it underscores how easily violence could occur in plain sight, a stark contrast to today's surveillance-heavy streets where such an event would likely be captured on camera instantly.
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