a trusted employee of a jewelry firm robs his benefac-
tor—quick capture of the thief and
recovery of the loot.
the arrest of fred erfert, who had been a trusted clerk in the jewelry house of john bolland & company, of st. louis, occurred in the latter part of 1892.
erfert had been employed by the company since his boyhood. at the time of his arrest he was about twenty-two or three years of age, and had become a trusted employe, and carried the keys of the establishment. he was the first man to open the store in the morning, and the last man out at night, closing and locking the store himself.
the firm was rated among the first establishments of the kind in the city, and was doing a large business. a large quantity of valuable goods were mysteriously disappearing and could not be accounted for, and finally the manager, mr. clarence white, called at my office one afternoon, and stated the facts in the case as he knew them. he stated, further, that mr. bolland had requested him to come and see me and tell me of the state of affairs, and ask me to take the matter under advisement, and that mr. bolland would call on me the following day for a conference, which he did.
mr. bolland stated to me that they had been missing goods from time to time for the past two years or more and that these losses had grown to alarming proportions. in an effort to clear up the mystery he had secured the services of another local private detective agency, at a considerable expense, but who apparently had not been able to fasten the numerous thefts on any person. he further stated that the losses seemed to be increasing, and that he[pg 208] would like to have me make an investigation and apprehend the guilty party, or parties, if possible. he said that in view of the amount of money he had already spent in attempting to locate the thief he did not feel as though he was justified in spending much more money, but he wanted me to make an investigation and see what i could do. he stated that he had also consulted the police department of the city, but they had failed to apprehend the thief. mr. bolland instructed me to proceed at once, saying that he did not believe that they had any one in their employ who was dishonest or disloyal, to which i answered, "it is evident to me, mr. bolland, that you believe all of your employes to be honest and faithful, or you, of course, would not have them in your employ." mr. bolland replied, "you need not spend any time in looking after clarence white, fred erfert or (laughingly) myself, but you may use your own judgment as to the other employes, although i want you to understand that i have the utmost confidence in all of them."
a short time before this interview took place, the bolland company had purchased a large stock of jewelry at sixth and locust streets, at a bankrupt sale. on purchasing this stock the bolland company sorted out the most desirable parts, which they removed to their own store, and then culled out from the stock in the main store, stuff that was growing stale, and placed it with the bankrupt stock. they then started to auction off the surplus stock. they placed erfert in charge of this auction store, with a number of clerks and a professional auctioneer. this auction was running full blast at the time of my interview with mr. bolland.
mr. bolland stated to me that goods were also being missed from the auction store, as well as from their [pg 209]regular store. so the following day i instructed one of my operatives to carefully observe all that he could about the auction store, from the time the store opened in the morning until it was closed at night, which the operative did. after he had spent the first day at the auction store the operative reported to me that he had noticed a number of what appeared to him to be irregularities, especially on the part of erfert, the manager of the place. he reported that on the evening of his first day on the job he had seen erfert and the other clerks leave the store. erfert, being the last man out, locked the door, put the key in his pocket, and the whole party walked to the corner of 6th and olive streets, where they separated, taking different cars presumably for their homes. he said that erfert, however, did not take a car, but walked west a block on olive street to 7th street, then north on 7th street to locust street, and east on locust street to the side entrance of the auction store, where he unlocked the door, entered the store and immediately returned to the sidewalk carrying a couple of large and heavy packages, which were fastened with shawl-straps. he then went back by the same route to 6th and locust, where he boarded a car and carried these two heavy packages, one in each hand, to his home in south st. louis, where he resided with his widowed mother and his sister. he entered the dwelling with these packages.
on learning this, i told the operative to carry out my instructions on the previous day, telling him that in case erfert doubled back on that evening after closing the store, and repeated the actions of the previous evening, that after he had emerged from the store the second time, as he had the night before, the operative should then approach him and say to him that i was in my office in the[pg 210] chemical building and wanted to see him at once, and to bring him up without delay. i remained in the office that evening, so as to be on hand in case erfert repeated his actions of the previous evening, and that is what he did.
it was in the winter time and dark about 5:30 p. m., when erfert closed and locked the store and left the other employes, apparently starting for home. he accompanied the others, as he had the night before, to 6th and olive, then left them, they going home and he making a circuitous route, the same as the night before, and went back to the store, letting himself in, and emerging almost immediately again, carrying two heavy packages, heavier than those he had taken the night previous, and fastened with the shawl-straps. after he had locked the door and had picked up the packages, which seemed very heavy, my operative approached him unobserved, and touched him on the shoulder, saying, "mr. furlong is at his office in the chemical building and wants you to come over and see him at once."
erfert replied, "what does he want to see me for?"
the operative said, "i do not know. he will explain that when he sees you."
erfert replied, "i am in a hurry and haven't time. i'm late anyway, and will call and see him tomorrow."
the operative said, "you can either go with me right now and see mr. furlong, or i will call the policeman (pointing to a policeman who happened to be standing diagonally across the street from where they were) and have him take you to police headquarters, and probably mr. furlong will go there and see you. now it is up to you. if i take you to police headquarters your name and picture will appear in the papers in the morning and you will probably get a lot of undesirable notoriety."
[pg 211]
"i don't want any notoriety," replied erfert, "but i can't understand what mr. furlong wants to see me for tonight. however, i will go with you, but i will put these packages in the store."
the operative said, "no, take these packages with you. what is in them?"
erfert replied, "i have two fine clocks that were sent over to my store by mistake and are too expensive to sell at auction, and i intend to take them back to the main store, where they belong."
"well," said the operative, "you take them up to mr. furlong's office, and after you have seen him he will probably allow you to take them to the main store."
the operative brought erfert to my office, packages and all. i had known erfert since his boyhood, and on his entering the office i took him into my private office.
here i will say that on the second day i had put another operative to work on this case, unknown to the first operative, who had been shadowing the first operative and had witnessed everything that had occurred, and had reached the office a few minutes ahead of the first operative and erfert, so that i was fully aware of all that had occurred.
when we were seated in my private room, i said to erfert, "fred, what have you in those two packages?"
he answered, "they are two clocks, which were sent over to the auction store by mistake. they are expensive clocks and i will not sell them at auction, and intended to take them home tonight and return them to the main store in the morning, before i opened the auction store."
"what other stock have you on your person which was sent over to the auction store by mistake?" i asked.
he replied, "i have only a few stick pins, and a few other small articles of jewelry."
[pg 212]
i said, "put them on my desk."
he did so, and the articles that he had concealed in his pockets, according to the prices marked on them, amounted in all to nearly four hundred dollars. there were gold rings, stick pins, and other small pieces of good jewelry. thinking that possibly he had not emptied his pocket, i inspected them myself. i found a memorandum book, in which he had kept an accurate account of all articles that had been taken from the jewelry company, the cost price of each article to the company, and the price he had received for a large lot of articles that had already been disposed of. this book was written in cipher. i also found a key to a safe deposit vault that he had in some safe deposit company.
i then informed him that thousands of dollars' worth of stuff had been stolen from his employers, that he had been practically raised by them, having been in their service nearly all his life, and that the company had always treated him well and justly; all of which he admitted, and that now, as he had been caught red-handed, i thought that it was his duty, and to his interest, to tell the whole truth as to what he had taken, and do all in his power to return as much of the property as possible.
at this time my office was on the fourteenth floor of the chemical building. my private office fronted on olive street, and erfert made a sudden lunge for the window and attempted to jump out. i prevented him from doing this, and after talking to him for a few moments, he admitted that he had been stealing from the company for the past two years. recently he had been assisted by another of the employes. his grandfather was conducting a jewelry and novelty store in south st. louis, and nearly all the stock in this store had been stolen by himself and his confederate from the bolland establishment. he also stated that[pg 213] he had a quantity of the stolen property concealed in the attic of his mother's house, where he lived, and agreed that he would go with one of my men at once and deliver all the stolen goods that he could to me, and he faithfully kept his word. at the conclusion of his statement, i sent a messenger to mr. bolland, telling him that i wished him to come to my office at once, as i had succeeded in capturing the culprit. (it should be remembered that the above all took place on the second day that i was working on the case).
mr. bolland arrived at my office about ten o'clock, accompanied by his wife and clarence white. i met them in the front office.
mr. bolland said, "the messenger told me that you had captured the party who has been robbing us."
i said, "yes, that is why i sent for you."
"whom have you caught?" he asked.
i replied, "fred erfert is the principal party."
mrs. bolland and white simultaneously exclaimed, "why you have surely made a mistake."
mr. bolland said, "i told you not to bother with erfert; that i believed he was all right."
at this juncture white (using a slang phrase) "butted in," and said, "why, furlong, you have got your foot in it sure. erfert surely had nothing to do with these thefts, and you have made a great mistake by even accusing him. he has been practically raised by mr. bolland and in his service for many years, and we've always had implicit confidence in his honesty."
i replied, "yes, i understand all of that; but mr. bolland employed me to apprehend the party, or parties, who were robbing him, which i have done. erfert knows that he is guilty and he has fully admitted his guilt, and i am satisfied[pg 214] from the evidence that i have found on his person that he told the truth when he said he was guilty. i, of course, realize mr. bolland's disappointment in finding that erfert was the guilty person, but i cannot help his feelings. i have simply done my duty in the matter, and now it remains with mr. bolland as to what shall be done with erfert."
"where is erfert?" mr. bolland asked.
i pointed to my private office and said, "he is there and waiting to see you. he has promised me that he will tell you what he has already told my assistant and myself, and that he would at once return a considerable quantity of the stolen property to you, which i have advised him to do."
i then conducted them to the private room where erfert reiterated the statement that he had made to me. he admitted everything. then i, with some of my assistants, immediately procured a hack and went with erfert to his mother's house, where we found about two hack loads of stolen goods, consisting of clocks, silver plate, fine umbrellas, and various articles of bric-a-brac, all valuable stuff.
i had these goods hauled direct to the bolland store. we then visited the store of the grandfather, in south st. louis and recovered about four hack loads of goods from there. by the time we had hauled the last load away from there it was nearly daylight.
while this loot was being removed from erfert's house, by erfert himself and two of my assistants, i was standing outside guarding the hack into which the goods were being placed. a police officer came along. he knew me and was somewhat surprised to see me at that time of night in that locality, and asked me, in a friendly manner, what i was doing there. i told him that there had been some stuff stolen from a jewelry store, and that it had[pg 215] been taken to this house, and i thought it advisable to remove the goods after night so as not to attract the attention of the neighborhood, as i felt sure that the women of the family were not aware of the fact that the property which had been placed in their house had been stolen.
the policeman later reported having met me and what i had told him, to his captain at the soulard street station, and, of course, this report reached the chief of police harrigan, the following morning. whereupon, the chief became exasperated and ordered the policeman suspended immediately, assigning the reason for so doing the fact that the officer had not arrested the hack-driver and myself. he also suspended one or two of the officers connected with the station who were on duty that night.
the next morning, about ten o'clock, a city detective called on me at my office and said to me, "i have been sent down by the chief to see you. the chief understands that you arrested a young fellow by the name of erfert last night, and that you recovered a lot of stolen property. is this report true?"
"part of the report seems to be true, while the larger part is not true," i replied. "you know, and the chief should know, that i have no legal right to make arrests, and therefore, i have made no arrest, nor have i caused any to be made within the city of st. louis, but i did recover a large quantity of stolen goods last night and early this morning. i have delivered them to the owner."
"where is erfert now?" he asked.
i replied, "i do not know where erfert is at the present time. why do you want to know this?"
"because the chief instructed me to come down here and get him, and bring him to headquarters at once," he said.
[pg 216]
"have you any charges against him at headquarters?" i asked.
"i don't know," he replied. "all i know is that the chief sent me down here to get him and bring him to headquarters."
i said, "i do not know whether there will be any charges preferred against erfert or not. his employer seems inclined to sympathize with him and more especially with his family. i do not believe that he cares to have him prosecuted for these thefts. i expect erfert to call at my office some time during the forenoon, and i am looking for mr. bolland here at any moment. when erfert comes i will tell him that the chief wants to see him."
the detective said, "no, you need not do that. i will wait here and when he comes i will take him up with me."
i turned to him and said slowly, "if erfert calls at this office while you are here, and if you have a warrant for his arrest, charging him with any crime, you may take him to headquarters; but, unless you have a warrant, i will not permit you to take him out of this office. i think, perhaps, you had better go and communicate this to the chief."
this city detective and myself had been friends for a number of years prior to this occurrence, and i must say that i did not like the idea of him coming to my office and attempting to have me admit to him that i had violated the law by having unlawfully detained a citizen, thereby laying myself liable to prosecution. however, not having violated the law, i felt perfectly safe. i knew that the chief was over-anxious to make me trouble as he had made others in my line of business in the past.
the detective left my office and went to report to his chief. in the meantime mr. bolland came to my office and[pg 217] i told him of the visit of the city detective and what had been said. mr. bolland said that he did not care to prosecute erfert; in fact, preferred not to do so, but, as the police had the right to prosecute the case, he was really undecided as to what was the best course to pursue.
i advised mr. bolland to quietly take erfert up to police headquarters and tell the chief what he had said to me, as it occurred to me in all probability the chief would insist on having erfert prosecuted.
mr. bolland accompanied erfert to police headquarters, where the chief and the detective who had called at my office took charge of him and put him through a series of questions, which were principally concerning what furlong had done. they tried to make him say that furlong had arrested him and forced him to make a confession of the thefts, and erfert afterwards told me that they never did ask him whether or not he was guilty of having robbed his employer. they bent their efforts to try and make a criminal case against me, and had gone so far as to prepare a statement, which they urged erfert to sign, declaiming that i had violated the law, instead of erfert, by having arrested him and then forcing him to make the statement admitting his guilt, all of which would have been a violation of the law on my part. erfert refused to sign this statement on the ground that it was untrue. i will state right here that the foregoing is a sample of how criminal cases were handled at police headquarters about that time. however, all these efforts were in vain, as erfert truthfully replied to every one of their questions. he told them that i had explained to him in the beginning of our interview that i had no legal right to arrest him, and that i had advised him that it was optional with him whether or not he returned the stolen goods, but that if[pg 218] he did not stay with me and help me that it would be my duty to turn him over to the police, and he then would be written up in the newspapers and would get a lot of undesirable notoriety that he wished to avoid.
the chief became very much exasperated with erfert's statement, by which he could make no case against me. however, he later made a complaint himself against me, charging me with running a private detective agency without a license from the police board. he had a warrant issued for my arrest. i waived a hearing, and in due time my trial was called before judge murphy. i was placed on the witness stand and asked if i was engaged in the detective business in st. louis. i replied that i was. i was then asked if i had a license from the board of police commissioners. i answered that i had not and had never applied for one. i was then asked by what authority i was conducting my business. i stated that i was conducting my business by the authority of a charter from the state of missouri. i was asked to produce the articles of incorporation. i did, and after the judge had carefully read them and had examined my charter, he dismissed the case and assessed the cost of court on the complainant.
the chief of police insisted on a prosecution in the erfert case. erfert was out on bond, and in due time appeared in court, pleaded guilty and received a minimum sentence, which, if i remember correctly was two years in the penitentiary. i understand that he was a model prisoner and was released under the two-third rule.
the stolen property that had been recovered amounted to several thousand dollars. i have learned that since erfert was released from prison he has been leading an exemplary life and is respected in the neighborhood where he resides. his confederate was a mere boy and was not[pg 219] prosecuted, it being understood that he had simply been a tool for erfert, and he had not been concerned in many of the numerous thefts.
