The $6,000 Wallet That Vanished From Under a Pillow
Milton Wood locked his door at the Vendome, left his pocketbook under his pillow, and woke to find $6,000 in cash and notes gone—with no sign of forced entry.
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.
Milton Wood, a wealthy resident of Chicago, who has been visiting his niece, Mrs. Arthur L. Fonda, at the Vendome, 1317 Front Street, awoke yesterday morning to find his pocketbook containing between $150 and $200 in cash and notes aggregating $6,000 missing. The matter was reported to the police.
Mr. Wood came from Chicago to Portland, where he has interests, and then to Tacoma. At the latter place he had large property interests and business of importance to transact. This concluded, he came on to Seattle last Friday or Saturday and took rooms at the Vendome, where his niece and her husband, Mr. Arthur L. Fonda, live. The room occupied by Mr. Wood was No. 27, in the northeast corner, and in the same corridor as those occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Fonda. Sunday night when Mr. Wood retired he placed his vest under his pillow. In the inside pocket of that garment he has carried a long leather pocketbook for over twenty years, and in that pocketbook, when last seen by Mr. Wood, were valuable papers in the form of notes for collection aggregating fully $6,000, three $50 bills and money of lower denominations bringing the sum to nearly $200. The door was locked and the key left in the keyhole; the transom was closed securely. Mr. Wood slept with a perfect sense of security and awoke with anticipations of a pleasant day. Everything was all right in the room, and he noticed nothing wrong until he put on his vest. Then he missed his pocketbook. The idea that he had been robbed flashed on him. It was not under the pillow, neither was it on the floor. In fact, he could not find trace of it in any place in the room. He examined the door to see if anyone had gotten in. The key was there and the door was locked as he left it on going to bed. The transom was shut. There was not any evidence to show that anyone had forced an entrance. Mr. Fonda was then notified and the key was examined to see if a burglar had turned it from the outside by means of pinchers. There were marks, but on comparing different keys the same kind of scratches were found on all.
“The key was there and the door was locked as he left it on going to bed. The transom was shut. There was not any evidence to show that anyone had forced an entrance.”
The Vendome stood at 1317 Front Street, a block since swallowed by downtown Seattle’s seawall and viaduct. Then, as now, a locked hotel room and a missing wallet could generate headlines—and the absence of forced entry made the case a small puzzle rather than a simple burglary.
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