Robbers Blow Safe at Ney Hardware Store

This event might have qualified for an episode of "Dumb Criminals", if such a thing had existed in 1903. 

Thanks to Dan Hasch for this article from the Defiance Democrat, Thursday, October 8, 1903, front page:

"ROBBERS BLOW SAFE

HARDWARE STORE AT NEY VISITED BY PROFESSIONALS.

 ONLY SCORED TEN CENTS AFTER HARD WORK AND OVERLOOKED NEARLY $700 - 

THEY MADE THEIR ESCAPE.

Two robbers blew the safe in the hardware store at Ney early this morning, wreckiing the safe, but secured only 10 cents, all the contents.  About $700 in a nearby trunk was overlooked.  The robbers escaped.

The hardware store is in the possession of Ed Myers.  Two months ago, he sold the store to M. D. Moog and sons, Porter and Douglas, but the latter had not yet taken possession, the invoice only being started yesterday.  It is believed the robbers reasoned that the purchase money had been paid and was contained in this safe.  The robbery followed with the thieves failure to secure anything for their trouble. 

The people living near the hardware store were awakened this morning by two explosions at about 2:10 o'clock.  The robbers were seen to leave the building rear door which they had pried open.  They secured a hand car and ran south on the Cincinnati Northern railroad to the Hicksville pike where the car was dumped into the ditch and the men continued their flight on foot.  The men were of medium height and both wore slouch hats.  They made good their escape.

At the hardware store it was found that the safe had been wrecked.  The contents amounted to ten cents which was taken by the robbers  In a trunk i the store was an amount of money reaching nearly $700, but its presence was not known to the robbers, and the dime was all they secured, scarcely paying for the nitroglycerine with which the safe was cracked.

The local officers received word this morning of the affair and Sheriff McCarty, Chief Hubbard, and Officers Shea and Wahl drove to the Bend and Sherwood, as it was stated the thieves were probably in that vicinity.  No trace could be found of them and they returned home at noon.

About 9 o'clock this morning, two suspicious parties who resembled the meager description of the pair, boarded an eastbound B & O freight train after inquiring the quickest route to get to Toledo.  The police were notified of their presence, but they left on the freight train before the arrival of the officers."