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A robbery of a South San Francisco saloon was reported on in the October 24, 1919, edition of The Enterprise and South San Francisco Journal:
A bold robbery took place in this city last Sunday night, Wolthers’ Saloon, corner of Grand Avenue and San Bruno Road, having been entered and $14 in cash, a pistol, a ring, a watch, and a stickpin taken. Not content with the results of their first visit, the robbers returned Tuesday and attempted to force an entrance to the place again but, for some reason, did not gain admittance. The side door showed plainly Wednesday morning that it had been worked on but was still locked. In all probability, the thieves were frightened away before they succeeded in their attempt.
It is the opinion of officers working on the case that Sunday night’s robbery was the work of amateurs. The $14 taken was in change in the cash register, which had been left standing ajar. On a shelf beside the register was $140 in a drinking glass that the marauders overlooked. This was money taken from a “punch board” (a gambling game) kept in the room, it being the custom of Wolthers and his barkeeper, James Taylor, to keep this money separate from that taken in across the bar. The pistol, watch and other articles taken were on the punch board at the time, a peculiar feature of the robbery being that two automatic pistols, four watches, and several pieces of jewelry, which were on the board at the time, were left unmolested. Nothing else in the saloon was disturbed.
Another puzzling feature of the affair is that while Wolthers, Taylor, and a man named Hudson were asleep in a room over the saloon Sunday night, they heard nothing. However, the side door had been opened by having a panel smashed, after which the thieves had apparently reached in and turned the knob of the spring lock and drawn a bolt. The front door bore evidence of being tampered with before the side door was forced.
No clue was left about the identity of those who committed the robbery.
