One of the biggest robberies of stumps
that the department has ever known was
(hat which occurred last fall at the bureau
of engraving ami printing. The govern
ment until within a short time has been
having the stamps made by the American
Bank Note company of New York. It cost
the government 7 cents a thousand. Now
Uncle Sam makes his own stamps and
saves SIOO,OOO a year by doing so. Last
October, however, It was found that two
employees of the bureau had I teen stealing
stamps by the thousand. The officers woke
up one morning to find 90,009 8 cent
stamps missing, and it was discovered that
these men had sent out short packages to
the various post-offices and had sold the
stamps they stole. There were two women
mixed up In the case, and just laiforo dis
covery the men took a satchel filled with
■tamps and ran off with the girls to New
York. They returned within a day or so
and went hack to work. They denied their
crime upon tieing arrested, hut were con
victed and are now serving out sentence In
the penitentiary. ,
A big stamp robbery occurred in Minne
apolis nine years ago. The thieves stole
890,000 stamps. They did it at night,
breaking through the stamp window. The
stamps were )ock<>d up in the safe, but the
burglars opened it with a diamond drill.
The value of their steal was about 114,-
000. They tiok their booty to Chicago and
tried to dispose of it there through some
men who acted as postage stamp fences.
