Show WHOLESALE ROBBERY Frederick Von Ober ampf and Thomas J Mack PLAY HAVOC WITH THE MAILS To th Extan of Oyer 8100000 Thousands of Letters Checks etc 1188In s Other News Notes Wh iieaato 1111 Sobbing CHICAGO August HA system of wholesale letter robbery extending over a period of two years involving the theft of thousands of letters including in-cluding enclosures drafts checks postofhce orders aggregating an unknown un-known amount though known to exceed ex-ceed 100 000 Complaints were made against the Chicago postal service and it was discovered by the police and United States inspectors Frederick Von OBerkarapf and Thomas J Mack are in custody and more arrests are likely to follow Von Oberkampf claims he is a member of a noble family while Mack ia a carpenter and a citizen of the United States The discovery of the gigantic pilferings came about in an unexpected way Ubeikampf was indebted to his landlady land-lady and in payment tendered a checK which she accepted and returned him the diflereuce in cash The check proved a forgery and she placed the matter m the hands of the police who locked the man in his room onNorth Market Street In searching this room the officers were astonished to find a trunk filled with letters They had all been opened No postmark post-mark and stamps were removed It was then ascertained that Von Oberkampf occupied another room aurf when this was searched another trunk full of lettf > all in the condition described above was found At another room in the hotel was I found a valise packed with broken mail matter and a bunch of keys one of the keys was for railroad mail pouches and other would fit any letter box m the city The captured mail matter was taken to the postoffice inspector The envelopes contained all sorts of queer things sent through the mails from dry goods samples and bits of jewelry to writing pads and photographs photo-graphs But that which showed tbe magnitude of the depredations was the presence of the piles of insurance policies poli-cies and trust deeds draft checks money orders and promissory notes These represented in the aggregate nearly 10 COO The largest chack was on for 1000 drawn by a wholesale grocery house of Chicago on the Continental National Bank Numerous other drafts ranging from 7000 to 10000 and scores drawn for 5000 each were found Van Ober kumpf was arrested Saturday and confessed con-fessed his guilt on Monday Postoffice authorities are now investigating how the podtal keys came into his possession and itis claimed further arrests will tollow It being supposed some letter carrier anticipating a loss I of position had a duplicate ot nis key made and gave it to Von Oberkampf sharing with him the proc eds Today both men were he ford Commissioner Hogtie Mack who was arrested on suspfcion because he had vouched for the genuineness of the check furnished to Von Ober tampfs landlord waived preliminary examination and was held to the Federal Fed-eral grand jury under 5 000 bail Von Oberkampfs case was continued until Tuesday in bond of the same amount Both men are now ia jail |