On this date 100 years ago, two burglars were foiled by residents of Bloomington. One was at 1501 E Washington Street at the home of Miles Young, the State's Attorney. Mrs Young awoke at 5 am, hearing noises in the house, and rose to check on her children. The children were quietly sleeping, but she noticed that an electric light was burning on the first floor. She reached for the switch and turned off the light, only to hear a mad scrambling on the first floor of her house! Mr. Young rose to dress and found that some of his clothing was missing. In the rooms downstairs they found several articles of clothing, mostly warm outerwear, tied in a bundle and $95 in cash that Mr. Young had been carrying the day before. The icebox door was swinging open in the kitchen. It was there the burglar had escaped on to the porch and out through the yard.
This represented a strange justaposition of new and old technology. The sudden absence of the electric light was such a startling event for the burglar that he lost his head and left all his loot behind. But his escape was made through OLD technology -- the icebox door through which ice block deliveries were made!
When William Williams, an African American man living near the C & A station found that he had been burglarized, he hunted the thief down. Lucius Brown had stolen Williams' new suit of clothes and took flight when he saw Williams. Williams chased Brown from the area of the station all the way to the corner of Kern and University streets in Normal, where he trapped Brown in a coal shed. (Kern is one street south of Hovey) He called the police to assist, and Brown was taken into custody.