Cornered burglar escapes when police fail to help

Thursday, 29 October 2009 05:00

October 29,1906. The army and the police both failed to come out on a cold and snowy night to aid two young men who had cornered a burglar in a railway boxcar in Calgary, the Edmonton Bulletin reports. The action started at three in the morning, when Mrs. R.D. Morrison became aware that someone was moving about in her house.

On getting out of bed [Mrs. Morrison] was confronted with a visitor who pointed a revolver at her and said he would fire if she was not quiet.

The burglar apparently thought that a woman was easy and did not attempt to get away. He, however, found the opposite, for Mrs. Morrison quickly alarmed two young men who were boarding at the house, and when this extra assistance arrived he quickly decamped through the door to the street, followed by the two men.

The burglar found himself hard pressed and made for a freight car with his pursuers at his heels.

Seeing no chance of escaping he took to the inside where he held both men at bay. Mrs. Morrison at once went to the barracks, which is only a few yards away, and asked for assistance at the guard room, but was told that it was the city police district, and that she would have to get them. They positively refused to make a move.

She thereupon went in search of the city police without success, afterwards telephoning to the station.

As no police or assistance arrived, the men, who were attired only in their night clothing, had to give up their watch, as the morning was bitterly cold and the snow was falling.