The Midnight Key
The Columbia Pharmacy was robbed by someone who possessed a duplicate key, leading to a police investigation.
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.
Some time in the early hours of Monday morning, somebody deliberately walked into the Columbia Pharmacy, relieved the cash drawer of about $18, and deliberately walked out again, locking the front door behind him. The police have been working on the case, but as yet no clue to the burglar's identity has been discovered. As a rule, Edward Sheppard, the proprietor, does not leave any money in the cash drawer during the night, but it just happened that Sunday night he neglected to take the change out. Nothing else in the store was molested and two checks taken from the drawer were found Monday on Yakima street near the alley between Second and Third. The burglary was evidently the work of someone who was familiar with the town and the habits of the patrolman, as well as someone who by some means has gained possession of a duplicate key to the front door of the store.
“The burglary was evidently the work of someone who was familiar with the town and the habits of the patrolman.”
A small-town burglary involving a duplicate key serves as a reminder of how vulnerable local businesses were before modern security systems. The detail about checks being found near the alley suggests a sloppy getaway, a common element in local criminal history.
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