The Cowardly Thieves of Section Seventeen
As train robbers earn grudging respect for their 'daring,' the local community denounces the 'craven' looters stripping furniture and doors from vacant rural homes.
Altho we don’t like to admit it, we all feel a certain respect for the robbers who have recently been holding up trains in this state. They display a dash, a daring and a bravery that challenge our admiration. Such a feeling, however, is totally lacking when we consider the thieves who rob the vacant houses in the community of their furniture, their supplies in the cellars and even their very doors and windows. Such a thief usually flies by night, and preys only upon unguarded property where he runs no risk of being caught. Among the places that have recently been entered from his depredations are the Body place in Section Seventeen and the old Lawson place in Section Twenty-one. It makes every honest citizen boil with indignation to pass either place and see the havoc wrought by these cowardly, sneaking thieves.
“Just as dishonest at heart as the train robber, the hold-up artist, or the pickpocket, he lacks the redeeming grace of bravery and is, therefore, the more craven.”
Property crime in rural areas—specifically the stripping of fixtures from vacant or distressed homes—remains a persistent struggle for property owners and law enforcement in the Tri-Cities region.
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