Yikes! – yes, another one. I thought my August 3 column covered all of the bank thefts in Eitzen (1964, 1986, 1991). But alert readers with good memories have since pointed out that I was at least one heist short of a quartet. Lifetime Houston County resident Glenn Buxengard recalled the “cream can crime” – but was not sure of the exact year. Carol Ann Burtness, the granddaughter of a 1936 bank employee, answered that question by retrieving from her family files two newspaper clippings from October of that year.
Burglars broke the lock on the front door of the State Bank of Eitzen at night and escaped with between $6,000 and $7,000 in currency and silver (about $130,000 in today’s dollars). The Eitzen State Bank was sufficiently insured to cover that substantial loss.
The perpetrators tacked the curtains to the window frames with tacks long enough to handle with gloves. While some of the thieves were using an acetylene torch to open the safe, others removed enough brick from the wall in the director’s office to crawl through the hole into the vault. But only three or four safety deposit boxes were opened with nothing taken.
Meanwhile, after cutting a small hole through the safe, the burglars poured water into the safe to prevent the heat from the torch from destroying currency and papers inside. A larger hole was then cut through the metal to afford entry into the safe.
According to The Caledonia Journal and the Minneapolis Star, the gang left behind a 10-gallon cream can that served as a “water can” that night. The Spring Grove Herald reported three cans were used.
Except for the safe and the vault, the interior of the bank was not damaged. Two coupon bonds were not taken. The thieves were thought to have escaped across the Iowa state line, less than a mile down the street from the bank.
The Thursday night break-in was believed to have taken place around midnight of October 23 or 24. One person reported of a flash of light near the building after 12 a.m. but took no action.
Bank cashier, F. H. Fruechte, discovered the burglary upon arriving for work the next morning at 7:30. Sheriff Arthur C. Brown notified state and federal authorities, who arrived in Eitzen before noon. According to the Caledonia and Minneapolis newspapers, the state bureau of criminal apprehension investigators opined that the heist in Eitzen was the second of two bank crimes committed that week by the same men in Minnesota small towns. The Spring Grove paper included a third theft. In each case, there were no fingerprints or definite clues – other than the cream can(s) in Eitzen.
The Journal referred to a previous theft at Renville, while the Minneapolis Star named of the town of Remer. The confusion may have come from their similar-sounding names since they are not in geographic proximity. Remer is in the north-central part of the state (near Grand Rapids), while Renville lies in southwest Minnesota (near Granite Falls).
The Herald also connected the gang to a third Minnesota bank theft that week in Winger, a town in northwest Minnesota, near Grand Forks, N. Dak.
With the $4,000 taken in Winger and the $5,000 stolen in either Remer or Renville, the gang’s total take for the week would have been close to $16,000. That amount in 1936 would be close to $300,000 in 2020 dollars.
In Eitzen, this 1936 crime and the 1964 burglary were both late-night larcenies that were not solved. Money again changed hands during the 1986 and 1991 daylight robberies at the same bank, but those thieves were soon apprehended, tried and convicted. At the time of those latter two daytime robberies, nighttime alarm systems would have not allowed enough time to break into the locked bank vaults.
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