Catching a Burglar

A Detective’s Story

by Emerson Bennett

While employed in London, in my vocation of a police detective, the department to which I belonged received notice, from time to time, of very singular and extensive robberies having been perpetrated at the regular depots of different towns and villages within a few miles of the city, and though considerable efforts were made to ferret out the thieves, yet up to the time I am now speaking of no arrests had been made leading to any satisfactory results. As these robberies continued to increase in number, without any clew being found to the thieves, the matter began to assume a serious importance, and I was directed to give it my whole attention, and use any means I might think proper to detect and bring the villains to justice.

Accordingly I visited the different depots where the robberies had taken place, and ascertained the important facts that in no case had a single lock, bolt, door, or shutter been broken, and that the missing goods invariably consisted of the most valuable articles and a uniform bulk, which was proof conclusive to my mind that these burglaries were either the work of one hand, or committed under one general direction. It might have been supposed that the robber or robbers entered the premises with false keys, only for the further fact that, in three instances, a clerk slept in each warehouse, and each was willing to make oath that every door and shutter was secured by inside bolts on that special night. Had one place only been robbed several times, I should have suspected someone connected with the establishment; but a close sifting of facts convinced me it was the work of some outside thief or thieves, whose ingenuity I was disposed to compliment at the expense of their honesty.

Well, I set my wits to work, and gave the matter my most serious consideration for two… Read More