Safe Cracked in Kapowsin Timber Raid
Thieves target the North Timber company, escaping with revolvers and a steel box full of negotiable paper.
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.
Yesterday evening Deputy Sheriff Doten went to Kapowsin to investigate a burglary that occurred there early Monday morning. Thieves had broken into the store of the North Timber company there and robbed the safe. They opened the outer door easily and then pried the inner door open with a chisel. They took cash from the register drawer. Inside the safe was a small steel box containing a number of checks and other negotiable paper. The exact value is not known, but it runs up into the hundreds. The burglars were unable to open this box and carried it away with them. They also took three revolvers—a Colt and three Iver Johnsons. The same gang visited a saloon next door and smashed the cash registers, securing only $6 there.
“They opened the outer door easily and then pried the inner door open with a chisel.”
Kapowsin was a vital timber hub, and such crimes against rural company stores highlight the vulnerability of remote payroll operations in the early 20th century.
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