April 24, 1908
CAUGHT POSTOFFICE ROBBER.
Mount Washington Men Chased Him
With Guns Through the Fields.
After discovering a burglar in the postoffice at Mount Washington at 1 o'clock this morning, Orin Shaw, who runs a poolhall next door, armed himself with a Winchester rifle, and with W. H. Chitwood, a grocer, scared the man from the building and chased him across fields for nearly half a mile, finally making a capture just as the fugitive ran into a barb wire fence.
"I saw some one in the postoffice striking a match," Shaw told Sergeant James of the Sheffield station, who later took charge of the marauder. "I armed myself, and then went to Chitwood's house to get assistance. Together we went to the postoffice, but the man evidently heard us coming, for just as we got to the front door he broke from the house and ran past us. We called upon him several times to stop, but he ran on north across the fields.
"After we had chased him for about half a mile I fired at him, but missed. We had been gaining steadily, and just at that time he became tangled in a barb wire fence and we got him."
At the Sheffield station the man gave the name of William Soper. He said he was traveling from Oklahoma to his home in Illinois. A search showed that he had $2.75 in silver, and 45 cents in pennies. This money he confessed having taken from the postoffice.
Labels: billiards, crime, guns, Mt. Washington, post office, sheffield
