It was autumn, 1903.
In a room at the Silver Lake Hotel, Mrs. Jerabek made her way to the bed. It was a Monday night, the evening was getting on, and it was time for her to retire. She climbed into bed, and before laying down, reached over to the nightstand, turned the lamp down and in no time at all had fallen into a deep sleep. At some point during her slumber she bolted upright, snapped awake by a large crash. Assuming something had fallen off a wall in the lower level of the hotel, she laid back down and once again dropped off to sleep. Another crash, and again she woke. Yet, Mrs. Jerabek was not concerned and assumed something else had fallen off the wall, or perhaps a hunting party was starting out early for the countryside and one had discharged a gun.
Little did she know something far more sinister was going on in town.
Four unknown men were seen in Silver Lake the day before. A number of people spotted them around town. As they weren’t causing problems, they were largely ignored. The following day, Monday, they were again spotted skulking around a house where a number of tools for the Great Northern Railway workers were kept.
A train steamed into town on Monday evening, right before the Silver Lake State Bank closed for the night. On the train was $1,000 to be delivered to the bank. The money, however, and for whatever reason, was not held at the bank.
It was getting late in the evening when the bank cashier, a man named Hawlik, ended his shift. He made his way to the bank vault, a six-foot square room behind a brick wall where a large safe was kept. Everything looked fine as he put his key into the back door and closed up the bank for the evening. He made his way home, turned in for the night, and left town for the State Fair early the next morning. Little did he know, everything was not all fine.
The bank was broken into during the night. The rear door, which Hawlik had locked, was entered with a skeleton key. Once in the bank, the burglars proceeded to cut through a brick wall to get into the vault. They made a hole just large enough for a man to crawl through. From there they used crowbars to break into the vault.
The safe was another obstacle. It was locked tight and could only be opened with a combination. The burglars plastered the outer edge of the safe door with soap. They then filled it with nitroglycerine. When they had enough for the job, they attached a fuse and lit it, jumped through the hole in the brick wall, and waited. The explosion woke Mrs. Jerabek in the hotel, and the door blew off the safe, revealing the riches the men were after. They took $2,759 including $500 of pure silver.
The case went unsolved. Some felt it was the work of the four strangers seen skulking around town, yet no evidence could be found other than the fact that the tools used came from the Great Northern Railroad workmen, taken from the home where the four strangers were spotted.
To this day, the identity of the thieves remains a mystery.
