The Daily Gate City

TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1911

STEALING COAL IN THE YARDS

One by Name of Alexander and Eighteen Year Old Kelly Nabbed by Officer Park This Morning.

TEAL MUCH FUEL

Large Quantities Taken From Coal Cars as They Stand In Railroad Yards, by Petty Thieves.

A firm resolve has been made by the police to break up thieving in the railroad yards and attention will be turned more particularly to punishment of those who have been making a practice of stealing coal from cars as they stand along the levee and in the uptown, switching districts.

Shortly after 7:30 this morning Officer Jake Park boarded the outgoing Rock Island passenger train and rode down to the shops. Enroute he kept well concealed in one of the coaches and looking out, says he saw Charles Alexander and Ed Kelly taking coal from a car standing on a siding.

Getting off the train Officer Park walked back up where the men were. Kelly spied the policeman and ran but Alexander, who is a man past forty years old, was arrested and taken to the station. Kelly's family was told to have the boy, he is about 18 years old, appear at the station, where charges of trespass were preferred against the men.

Both were arraigned in the superior court and Judge McNamara imposed a sentence of thirty days each on the pair, which was changed to a fine and payment of costs, which was furnished.

An All Winter Practice.

Throwing coal from coal cars as they stand in the lower railroad yards has been a mal-practice which has been kept up by petty thieves all winter long. Companies have made complaint and a number of arrests have resulted when the culprits were caught.

One dealer who had a car of coal standing on a lower yard track about a week, reported that between four and five tons of coal were taken from the car in that time.