Middlebury Register

A DARING ROBBERY.

MASKED MEN HOLD UP AN OFFICE FORCE FOR $4000.

A Philadelphia Street Car Company's Terminal Treasury Looted—Large Number of Men Implicated—Entire City Detective Force on Case.

Philadelphia, June 19.—A gang of masked robbers, probably ten, raided the receiving office of the Fairmount Park Transportation company, at Belmont mansion in Fairmount Park, this morning, and after holding up the receiver and five employes blew open the safe, securing $4000. Receiver and men were bound hand and foot with wire.

In addition to the men who actually committed the robbery, others operated miles away, destroying telegraph and telephone wires connecting with the trolley company's main office.

The company operates various lines of trolley cars through the park for pleasure riders. Traffic being unusually heavy Saturdays and Sundays, the robbers evidently decided upon this morning as being a good time to make a big haul. The men were all in the office when the burglars appeared. Each intruder was armed with two revolvers and took the employes by surprise. It was the work of a few moments for the robbers to pinion the workmen, who were rolled over to the side room, fast to the wall. Two hours later the safe had been cracked and the gang had disappeared.

The entire city detective force is on the case. There is no clue.

The car barn in which the office is located stands above a deep ravine leading from the Belmont mansion to a pleasure resort on the Schuylkill river. It is surrounded by heavy timber land and its isolation rendered it perfectly adapted for the work of robbers. The opinion is expressed that some one in the employ of the company was either a member of the gang or in collusion with them.

Nitroglycerine was first tried on the safe, but that failing it was drilled open with the company's own tools.

Frank Levan, the night receiver, and the one gagged and bound by the robbers, told this story of his experience:

"While standing at the southern door of the office next to the stalled cars, I heard footsteps in the rear. Turning I saw two men with masks. They had two big revolvers apiece, and came directly up to me at the desk. I saw at once that it was all up with me. They told me not to move nor cry or they would kill me. One fellow was of enormous size and stuck his pistol against my ear. They took me into the conductors' room, tied my hands and feet with picture cord, and laid me on the floor with my face to the wall. The electric lights were burning brightly all the while and in the conductors' room I saw Whitehouse was being held in the same way, being bound and gagged. When we were laid on the floor a man was detailed to guard each. After a few minutes in came another victim, who, I think, was Watson, conductor, who went through with the same thing. Then more came in bound and by this time I thought there must be 12 or 15 desperadoes at work in the car barn.

"The robbers worked very quietly. They whispered whenever they said anything to their number. There must have been an accomplished cracksman with them, for it only took ten minutes to blow up the safe. The works inside, however, got tangled up and they worked and hustled to open the door wider for an hour and a half. The explosion of dynamite filled the rooms with smoke and nearly choked us. The guards put us in a most unpleasant frame of mind. They frequently threatened to shoot us if we made the least outcry or motion.

"I think they must have had a wagon to take away the cash, because it was largely made up of specie and was very heavy. Shortly after the money was taken the guards left. After considerable tussling Philip Eaves, the electrician, one of the bound, got unloosened and then unloosened us. We tried to reach city hall by wire, but found the wires had been cut."