A HALF TON OF CHOICEST PORK LOIN IS HID IN ATTIC OF VACANT HOUSE
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Meat was Discovered Last Sunday Where it was Carefully Hid Away in an
Unfrequented Farm House – Officers Believe it is Result of Systematic
Pilfering from Railroad Trains, Which Run Slowly Eastbound in that
Vicinity – Detectives are Working on the Case.More than a thousand pounds of the choicest pork loins were found stored away in an attic of a vacant house near the Harkness switch neighborhood Sunday afternoon. The meat was tainted already and spoiled entirely before it was removed or marketed.
It is believed that the meat was stolen from cars on the Erie railroad, and was stored in the vacant building by the robbers. Just why they did not get busy last Saturday night and market their haul is not know. The house is owned by Ruel Wheeler, and is situated in River Road between Frank Scudder’s farm and the undergrade crossing of the Erie. The place has been vacant some months, and while walking in that neighborhood on Sunday Mr. Wheeler observed the door to the house was open. He investigated, and once inside would carefully inspect the premises. Built into the house is a lean-to, the ground floor of which is used as a kitchen, and the attic is not connected to the main part of the dwelling. While walking through the rooms on the second floor the owner discovered that a hole had been cut from one of the chambers into the attic over the kitchen., and upon looking closer he found great piles of meat, corded up in ranks like wood.
It was found that the boxes which are used at the packing houses to ship meat had been [indecipherable] and piled back of the meat. Mr. Wheeler told [unreadable] Agent Smith of his find, and [unreadable] officers and railroad detectives were immediately notified. During the week those officers have been diligently at work upon every clue, but if they have taken any one into custody charged with this crime, that fact has not been made public.
Mr. Wheeler’s property adjoins the Erie railroad at a point where there is a stiff grade for east-bound trains. Many freights come to a stop in this neighborhood, while all of them are slacked down to a speed that would enable an active man to dismount from a freight car. The supposition advanced by the officers is that someone knowing the locality has been throwing off goods and meat and that the plunder was taken to this vacant house to await timely occasion for removal.
Residents of this locality say this is not the first time they have observed evidences of pilfering from the trains. One farmer reports that in the winter he observed a lot of galvanized pipe alongside the railroad one morning while he was going to his work. Within a half hour he returned over that same territory and noticed that the pipe, of which there were a number of lengths, had disappeared. Also there were marks in the snow this winter to indicate that goods had been removed from trains in that vicinity. It is said that railroad detectives have been riding the freight trains through here in hopes of apprehending the thieves, but when the detectives were about there was nothing doing.
The warm weather the first day of the week caused the pork loins to decay rapidly, but up to yesterday morning no effort had been made to remove the stuff. Mr. Wheeler naturally desires to free his property of this menace to health and may seek authority to have the railroad company act without further delay.
Source: Randolph Register, Randolph, NY. May 9, 1919.