Safecrackers Blow Kapowsin's Only Safe and Ride the Rails Out
A nitroglycerine charge, a stolen handcar and a $1,200 haul: Pierce County's small-town robbery baffles the sheriff.
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.
After blowing open the large safe of the S. Hull Brothers' general merchandise store at Kapowsin with a charge of nitroglycerine and taking nearly $1,200 in cash and checks, experienced safe crackers last night stole a handcar from the Kapowsin yards and fled.
The robbers sped down the Tacoma Eastern line to Fern Hill Junction, where they derailed the car and disappeared.
The demolished safe was discovered this morning when employees of the store appeared for work, and the handcar was found by railroad men soon after. No clue was left as to the identity of the men.
They broke into the store by forcing open the rear door with pickaxes and hammers. Then, with adept skill, they made a cup of soap at the top seam of the safe door and poured in the glycerine. The explosion blew the large door of the safe completely off its hinges and laid open to view the entire contents of the steel box.
About $600 in cash and $400 in checks, besides a number of valuable papers, were taken. The safe is the only one in Kapowsin and is about eight feet high.
Sheriff Morris was notified and Deputy Stenso was detailed on the case.
It is believed that the safe crackers came into Tacoma after leaving the handcar near Fern Hill, and the police are on the lookout for them today.
“The explosion blew the large door of the safe completely off its hinges, and laid open to view the entire contents of the steel box.”
Kapowsin's lone safe made the general store a natural target in a cash economy with no bank branch on the corner. The handcar escape down the Tacoma Eastern also shows how rail lines knit together rural Pierce County—and gave robbers a fast route out.
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