From the Richmond Dispatch, 3/18/1863, p. 1, c. 6

Heavy Robbery. – The merchant tailoring establishment of John C. Shafer, under the Exchange Hotel, was entered by thieves Tuesday morning, between the hours of two and five o’clock, and robbed of about ten thousand dollars’ worth of cloth. The robbery must have been perpetrated before five o’clock, as the watchman on passing at that hour found the front door open, and then discovered the affair. The thieves obtained entrance by boring a number of augur holes through one of the lowest panels of the store door, by which means they got out a piece of wood large enough through which to admit their hands, when the bolt which inserts into the floor was withdrawn, and by means of a crowbar the door, which was divided as usual and locked in the middle, was forced open. The heavy plate glass forming one side was broken by the insertion of the crow bar. The robbery appears to have been perpetrated by adepts at the business, as the mode adopted to effect an entrance in the store was the one most likely to succeed in accomplishing that object. The police were notified of the affair, and it is possible that their inquiries will elicit information that may lead to the detection of the thieves.

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