The Midnight Hog Thieves of Seattle
A neighborhood slaughterhouse foreman turns the tables on a persistent gang of livestock rustlers who had been terrorizing the area.
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.
The organized gang that for the past six months has made periodical predatory raids upon stockyards and slaughterhouses at the head of the bay was caught in the act of driving away a drove of hogs from Smith Bros. & Butler's corral about 3 o'clock yesterday morning. The stockyard is situated on a urea of land near the Bay View Brewing Co., in charge of Pete Drieuger, foreman of the company's slaughterhouse. Mr. Drieuger had been rendered watchful by the frequent thefts, so yesterday morning when he heard an unusual noise in the stockyard, he got out of bed and investigated. He found the gate had been opened. Hastily calling the employees to his assistance, he placed a cordon of guards across the peninsula over which the thieves would have to drive the hogs. In a few minutes, he was rewarded by seeing several men driving a big drove straight toward them. When they saw they were surrounded, the thieves took to the brush, escaping several bullets that were sent after them. One of the men tried to slip through the cordon but was captured by Dave Brooks. He proved to be Harry Jeffreys, a former employee at the yard, who had long been suspected of leading the gang. After a short search, another man, giving the name of Isaac Hayes, was found hiding in the brush. The other members of the band succeeded in eluding the guards. Jeffreys and Hayes were brought to town and lodged in the county jail. The band of hogs was found near the slaughterhouse; there were over thirty hogs in the lot, and their value will amount to several hundred dollars.
“When they saw they were surrounded, the thieves took to the brush, escaping several bullets that were sent after them.”
While modern Seattleites worry more about porch pirates than pig rustlers, the sentiment remains the same: a neighborhood taking matters into its own hands when civic security falls short. The DIY approach to 'hiding in the brush' and setting up a private cordon to catch thieves highlights a recurring tension in Seattle's history regarding community safety and property protection.
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