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The Boy Who Robbed A Safe So He Could Travel And Meet Pretty Girls And Got No Punishment

In 1910, an 18-year-old Philadelphia boy named Edmund Clare pulled an elaborate robbery at his work, yet after he was caught he was set free

Andrew Martin
4 min readMay 29, 2023

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Other than simply wanting to accumulate money, criminals sometimes turn to their devious actions for specific reasons. It may not be that they want to lead a life of crime, but that because its their only reasonable means to an end. Such was the case of a teenaged boy from 1910 who perpetrated an elaborate robbery of his office’s vault so he could obtain the funds that would allow him to travel and meet some pretty girls.

The front page of the January 9, 1910 issue of the New York Times carried the story of 18-year-old Edmund Clare of Philadelphia. The boy was employed in the office of the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania. A dreamer of limited means, he hatched an elicit plot to obtain the capital needed for him to pursue his goals.

Unfortunately, Clare determined that the best way for him to get the needed money was to burgle his office’s safe. Secreting away a wrench and a screwdriver in his clothes, he hid himself in the vault on a Thursday afternoon just before closing. The company’s treasurer locked the boy…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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