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Show MYSTEflY SHROUDS CHECK THEFT FROM ROOSEVELT POST OFFICE. Cancelled Checks From Salt Lake Clearing House Taken From Roosevelt State Bank Box THE Roosevelt marshall's office, of-fice, officials of the Roosevelt j State Bank, and the Post Office department today were pondering ponder-ing the theft and burning of approximately ap-proximately $75,000 worth of checks, drawn on the Roosevelt State Bank by local business houses for payment of monthly : accounts to outside firms. The checks, some of which were totally to-tally destroyed, were found Monday morning in the rear of the Cosh Meat Market. They had cleared the Federal Reserve Bank in Salt Lake City, and had been mailed to the local bank for payment, According to Postmaster J. Austin Pack, the checks were received at the' local postoffice Sunday, and placed in the box of the Roosevelt State Bank. Bank officials maintain that none of their employees opened the box until Monday morning. i THE checks were discovered by employees of the Cash Meat Market at about 7:30 a. m. Monday. Mon-day. Leaving them untouched, the finders immediately notified City Marshal Jack McArthur, who on advice of postal authorities author-ities sea.loei the partially burned checks and placed them in the vault at the Roosevelt post office. Mr, Pack stated Wednesday night that the apparent post office of-fice theft had been referred to Chief Postal Inspector Clark of Denver. Mr. Clark, Mr. Pack said, promised to dispatch a member of his staff to Roosevelt immediately to investigate the case. However, an inspector had not arrived by Thursday. "It appears to me "that this (theft probably was the work of small boys. The only thing that 1 was missing, so far as I was able to ascertain, was the package (containing the checks addressed . to the Roosevelt State Bank. (The checks were placed in the (bank's box Sunday morning. There were no signs of forceful entry into the post office building build-ing when we opened at 8 a. m. Monday. "Our reason for believing that it might be the work of small boys," Mr. Pack continued, "is based on the fact that very often we have seen youngsters playing with the combination of the mail boxes. It is entirely possible that some youngster might have learned the combinations to various var-ious boxes by watching adults open them. The postmaster stated further that many times he or a member of his staff had found it necessary neces-sary to go into the lobby to close boxes that had not been properly proper-ly locked after the box holder had entered them for their mail. i IN the meantime the theft and the reasons for it remain clouded cloud-ed nor will the situation clear until the post office inspection division completes its investigation. investiga-tion. Any thought that the Federal Bureau of Investigation might enter the case was dispelled Wednesday night when Chief Special Agent J. C. Newman in charge of the FBI office in Salt Lake advised the Standard via telephone that the case is strictly a post office matter and out of the jurisdiction of the Justice Department." " |