Houses
Burglarized
At an early hour on Monday
morning last, the houses of
H. H. Goff and H. J. Brook were broken into by a party supposed to
have consisted of four or more men, who operated from three
automobiles.
From Mr. Groff's nothing
appears to have been taken except two crowbars, which were needed by
the burglars for their operations at Mr. Brook's.
How long it took them to pry
open the door of Brook's vault is not known, but it was a quarter to
five when the household was aroused by the clink of glass as they
carried cases of champagne and Scotch up the outside entrance steps.
They had effected entry by
breaking a window and had, in all probably, worked for hours getting
the vault door open. That they intended to make a complete clean-up
is evident, however, they fell very short of their aims.
Three trips from cellar to
car would seem to be the limit of their carryings, save that they
took a robe from Brook's car and a new spare tire off the back of
it.
Mr. Brook, hurrying down to
his office for his gun, alarmed the visitors and as he got to the
front door they reached the Ford car, which stood at Mr. Groff's
lane. The other two cars were parked in front of Mr. Whitehead's,
and all three tore south on the highway.
About an hour afterwards Mr.
Brook, with Chief Muir and Constable Barber got after them. The
fugitives were tracked to the vicinity of Lynnville, where the trail
was lost.
An hour later, a farmer near
Mt. Vernon telephoned the Brantford police that a bunch of men in
cars with booze were in the woods in that vicinity. Inside a second
hour the Brantford force had a squad on the ground.
The cases in which Mr.
Brook's liquor had come from Scotland were found in a swamp hole,
also an automobile tire for which Mr. Brook's new tire had
unquestionably been substituted.
Two Brantford men, connected
with the job by having driven the car that entered the woods at Mt.
Vernon were arrested that night, and are now in Simcoe jail.
They declined to talk and
were remanded by Police Magistrate Gunton until 4 May 1921. Bail was
refused. Their names are Stephen Ferroll and Fred Masion. The former
lived last winter for a few months in Charles McCall's house on
Norfolk Street South.
