OCR Text |
Show ' t -"I SOMEONE WHO KNOWS CONTENTS OF CARS AIDS ORGANIZED GANG IN CLEVEX LOOTING Within a week or ten day thr will likely be at leaal a half down arrest made In various pert a of th west, tnclud ing Ttah. that are expected to lead to th breaking up of what Is considered the best orvanlsed gang of box oar rob bars that baa ever operated In the weet. For more than a year, according te railroad men, practically every road In the west haa suffered loeees from the box car thieves. Baveral western rosds have had eome of their best men working on one cas or another, hut to a track naa been so carefully covered that It haa been a hard toh to trace th pilferers. ai-als of cars In transit haw frepueritlv been broken and part of tha contents stolen. In thia city a few dava ago the aeal waa taken from one of the box cars .that waa robbed. To tha ordinary per 11 It appeared to ha Intact. It might paaa a dosen Inspectors. But a careful acrutlny showed that tha aeal had been broken and then put together again ao cleverly that It would probably paaa tha Inspector at the next atopplng place. Thus tha car would go on to the and of ita iourney. where It would be found that It had been opened and goods stolen. While admitting that the railroads hare teat much from thieves of thls-claea. local railroad officers ara not Inclined to 111s-euss 111s-euss tha matter. One aald thia morning: "T ana satisfied that there la an organised or-ganised gang. Rverv railroad In the west, aa far as f ran learn, haa suffered Its loaaea and paid them for mo n tha. Tha situation haa become seiioua. Tale-rag Laarm eVmiahow. "Personally I am accusing no man, but 'there Is a mighty big suspicion In tha minds of soma railroad man that tha work haa not been done by 'boboa.' but rather by someone who knew, or had In-, formation aa to which car contained valuable val-uable goods which could be disposed of .without suspicion or could be used to advantage ad-vantage at some certain point without anvona euspeeting tbat they were atolea gooda, with the possible exception of tha man who purchased them to aell again and whs la in' with tha thief. The work done on soma of the care robbed and tha r twrew whera. rwe have reason te behave hm stolen goods were dropped from tha train. g4va us ample reaaon te believe tha job aaa not dona by amateura. Railroad men aay detective ara at work on tha rasa and that devalopments may be expected at any time. "I behave," aald one, "that It win ha but ft question of a abort time before some of these men ara arrested, and when they are I think that thia business will ton. Of eouraa wa do hot care to ar-reet ar-reet ft man, no mattef how much wa sae-pect sae-pect him. until wa feel confidant that wa have tha proof to eonvlrt him. While th loaaea of -the road which I rap re sent ara comparatively small for the amount of freight wa handle, yet they ara such that wa. Ilka every other road that la auf- a faring, feel that wa fnuat put ft atop to thia practica." Dwtactiyag aa "Hoboa.' 1qis railroad official do not deny that for some time they have had apecial agents traveling on freight tralna under the guise of "hoboe" "beating" their way. riding tha brake beam or doing anything any-thing they could to follow a freight train from the east into the far weat. Theee men have watched tha tralna aa they stopped at each elation and then slipped back tn their place under the car or on the blind baggage or have sought the job of shoveling coal on tha engines, under the guise that thev were railroad men in hard lack and wanted to go west or east-At east-At ft point where It waa suspected something some-thing might happen they have suddenly become !" or dropped off hare to "see thia section of tha country. If the truth ware known they were still en gome part of the train watch tng. It is understood that upon the basis af revets t tone made by these special agents, together with careful work on tha part of the other detectives of the companies, srrests will be made. Whan they are made It will not be on "Joe Doe" warrants, war-rants, nor without tha railroad companies feeling that thev have a safe case against the man arrested. |