What appeared to be a “highly professional” job of safe cracking took place Sunday night at Dudney’s Grocery located at the intersection of highways 56 and 53 east of Gainesboro. Averitt Dudney, owner of the store, reported that approximately $425 in cash and more than $1000 in checks were stolen.
Mr. Dudney said that he discovered the break-in when he arrived at his store to open for business on Monday morning. The front door glass had been broken by the thief or thieves to gain entrance to the store. Sheriff Lon Chaffin was called to investigate the break-in. While the investigation was underway Arthur Flatt found the boxes that had contained the stolen money across the road from the store in the intersection. All the checks were in a metal cash box, Sheriff Chaffin said, the cigar box that had contained the cash was empty. A fingerprint expert from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called from Nashville.
The combination had been broken from the safe, an old-fashioned model commonly used everywhere. Sheriff Chaffin said that the method used in opening the safe was called the “punch job” and that it appeared to have been done by an expert. First the combination disc was removed from the front of the safe door with very little damage. Then the mechanism of the lock was knocked back into the safe with one deft blow. Sheriff Chaffin said that there were reports of similar safe jobs from areas in Kentucky. Mr. Dudney reported that nothing was missing from the store except money from the safe. “If even a package of cigarettes was taken, I cannot miss them” he said. Dudney has owned the grocery business for eight months.
