Jim Kershner’s this day in history
From our archives, 100 years ago
Postal workers at the Wallace post office arrived at work and opened up the safe, only to discover that they were the victims of the largest theft ever recorded in the Coeur d’Alene district.
More than $17,000 in cash had somehow vanished from the safe overnight. Included in the haul were registered mail packages that included the payrolls of several mines, including the Morning Mine, Gold Hunter Mine and Snowstorm Mine.
The safe showed no appearance of tampering, nor was there “so much as a finger print as a clue.”
The postal employees said most of the registered mail packages had come into the office the night before via train from Spokane. When the postmaster arrived at 6 a.m. the next morning, nothing appeared amiss. Then he opened up the “triple-door, three-and-four tumbler safe” and realized that, first of all, the innermost door was unfastened. Then he realized that the three big parcels of cash were missing.
Police stated the obvious: It appeared to have been an inside job, or at least committed by someone who knew that a huge amount of cash was being sent to Wallace from Spokane. Police speculated that the thieves might have even been on the same train.
Police “scoured the district” but had no suspects.