Robbery Was Not Newtown’s First Bank Heist

By Andrew Gorosko

While the March 13 robbery at Fleet Bank on Queen Street may have been the first local “bank robbery” in memory, there have been at least two “bank burglaries” in the past – one in 1905 and one in 1889.

Both of those bank burglaries occurred at Newtown Savings Bank, in its former location in the Chase Building on Main Street at the corner of West Street.

 Unlike a bank robbery, which occurs when one person confronts another person demanding valuables under the threat of violence, a bank burglary typically occurs at night when an unoccupied bank is illegally entered for theft.

According to a news story in the Friday, October 27, 1905, edition of The Newtown Bee, “Newtown citizens were treated to a sensation Tuesday morning when it was found that burglars had visited the Newtown Savings Bank during the night, blown open the large safe containing the [bank accounting] books, mortgage deeds, insurance papers, etc, and had decamped with exactly $7.80 as the net result of their night’s labor.”

Neighbors of the bank, who were awakened by an explosion, spotted a ladder near the bank, the tool used by the burglars to gain entry through a window.

About 6:30 am October 24, 1905, A.T. Nettleton, the bank treasurer, was notified that the bank had been breached.

According to The Bee’s report, the burglars had drilled a hole in a safe, poured in some nitroglycerin and triggered an explosion, which did not force open the safe. After prying open the safe doors, the burglars stole $7.80 in cash, not an inconsiderable sum in 1905.

The thieves left some gold coins on the bank floor and left bank records intact.

A larger safe in the bank was not damaged in the incident.

“A number of people think that the [burglars] came to town in an automobile,” the report stated.

The bank, which then had $850,000 in assets, offered a $200 reward for the arrest of the burglars.

The same bank was the scene of a February, 1889, bank burglary in which intruders unsuccessfully attempted to blow up a safe.