When the robbery became known, the city was thrown into intense excitement, as it was rumored that over one million of money and securities had been stolen. The bank was quickly besieged by depositors and other interested parties, together with the usual assembly of curiosity-seekers. The depositors were perfectly uncontrollable; and at one time it seemed that they were going to lay hands on money, or securities, found outside the vault, and make themselves secure against loss. The police, however, kept them at bay, and kept them out of the building. At length the bank officials appeared on the scene, in company with the bank’s legal adviser; and after a short time they issued a statement that only about twenty thousand dollars had been stolen.
This report kept down the excitement, but the depositors really did not know whether they were safe, or utterly ruined. The detectives took charge of the case, but, as stated at the outset, they were unable to cope with the matured plans of the thieves, and did not succeed in bringing any of them to the bar of justice.
BLOWING OPEN A SAFE.
The vault was in the president’s room, at the rear of the premises. It was defended by an iron door, having a combination lock. This door was blown open with the gunpowder which had attracted the porter’s attention. The door being opened, everything in the safe was accessible. The keys to the second door hung on the inside of the one that had been thrust open by the action of the powder, and it is hardly necessary to say that the thieves made good use of them.
The third door was forced open with a powerful screw, the force used being sufficient to depress the floor under the door. Here were two safes; one contained the securities of the depositors, and the other the property of the bank.
The boxes of the depositors appeared to be the principal attraction for the thieves, and paper securities were preferred to the gold which stared them in the face. These boxes were completely overhauled, and securities to the amount of about five hundred thousand dollars were abstracted; one depositor having lost as much as fifty thousand dollars, for which the bank was in no way responsible.
About thirty thousand dollars belonging to the bank, in checks and currency, were stolen. The thieves overhauled some thirty thousand dollars in Clearing House currency, which could have been negotiated, as well as thirty thousand dollars in gold coin; but which they did not touch.
The detectives went to work, and it was said that one or more of the bank’s officials were suspected, and closely watched for some time subsequent to the robbery. Two men, who were said to be the most daring and accomplished bank thieves in the city, were suspected; but no trace could be obtained of their having been seen near the Ocean Bank. These men were supposed to have committed a robbery, just previously, at the National Bank of New Windsor, of something like one hundred thousand dollars. A number of expert English burglars had also arrived a short time before the robbery, but nothing could be brought against them.
On the third day after the burglary, a patrolman, in Elizabeth Street, about three o’clock A. M., met two young lads whom he knew. Suspecting they were up for no good at that hour of the morning, he spoke to them. They informed him that there was a large trunk standing on the sidewalk, opposite No. 8 Elizabeth Street. He went to the number indicated, and there found the trunk, as they had described. On it was a card directed to Captain Jourdan (late superintendent of police), of the sixth ward. The trunk and the two boys were taken to the station-house.
SECURITIES RETURNED.