He did so, and the articles that he had concealed in his pockets,
according to the prices marked on them, amounted in all to nearly four
hundred dollars. There were gold rings, stick pins, and other small
pieces of good jewelry. Thinking that possibly he had not emptied his
pocket, I inspected them myself. I found a memorandum book, in which he
had kept an accurate account of all articles that had been taken from
the jewelry company, the cost price of each article to the company, and
the price he had received for a large lot of articles that had already
been disposed of. This book was written in cipher. I also found a key to
a safe deposit vault that he had in some safe deposit company.
I then informed him that thousands of dollars' worth of stuff had been
stolen from his employers, that he had been practically raised by them,
having been in their service nearly all his life, and that the company
had always treated him well and justly; all of which he admitted, and
that now, as he had been caught red-handed, I thought that it was his
duty, and to his interest, to tell the whole truth as to what he had
taken, and do all in his power to return as much of the property as
possible.
At this time my office was on the fourteenth floor of the Chemical
Building. My private office fronted on Olive Street, and Erfert made a
sudden lunge for the window and attempted to jump out. I prevented him
from doing this, and after talking to him for a few moments, he admitted
that he had been stealing from the company for the past two years.
Recently he had been assisted by another of the employes. His
grandfather was conducting a jewelry and novelty store in South St.
Louis, and nearly all the stock in this store had been stolen by himself
and his confederate from the Bolland establishment. He also stated that
he had a quantity of the stolen property concealed in the attic of his
mother's house, where he lived, and agreed that he would go with one of
my men at once and deliver all the stolen goods that he could to me, and
he faithfully kept his word. At the conclusion of his statement, I sent
a messenger to Mr. Bolland, telling him that I wished him to come to my
office at once, as I had succeeded in capturing the culprit. (It should
be remembered that the above all took place on the second day that I was
working on the case).
Mr. Bolland arrived at my office about ten o'clock, accompanied by his
wife and Clarence White. I met them in the front office.
Mr. Bolland said, "The messenger told me that you had captured the party
who has been robbing us."