The Great Buggy Heist of Stevens County
Ten horse-drawn rigs were stolen in Spokane and scattered across the countryside, leading to a swift manhunt near Addy.
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.
On information received from Chief of Police Rice of Spokane, Sheriff W. H. Graham on Monday arrested Babe and Budd Buck at their home about 15 miles west of Addy on a charge of burglary. The charge was that of stealing 10 buggies and four hacks from the Paulson Implement company at Spokane and shipping them into Stevens county. The sheriff found three of these in the yard of Babe Buck, two in Blue Creek and five at Addy. The men claim to have bought the rigs from a Spokane man, but refuse to give his name. They have lived in this county about 15 years. The men were taken to Spokane by Deputy Sheriff Long of that county. The value of the rigs was about $1,500.
“The sheriff found three of these in the yard of Babe Buck, two in Blue Creek and five at Addy.”
This crime highlights the scale of rural theft during the transition to industrial agriculture, where expensive hardware became a primary target for illicit resale. The geography of the crime links the urban hub of Spokane to the rural economy of Stevens County.
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