#window trap

The death trap. Photo from the Chicago Tribune, 28 January 1929.

Perhaps this wasn’t a way that most Chicagoans would end up dying, but it was a reality for some. It’s still an issue today on occasion, unfortunately. So long as you’re on the up and up, you likely won’t have to worry about getting caught in the middle of a burglary — literally finding yourself trapped by the place you were trying to rob.

In 1960, Clarence Anthony was hoping to rob the Groceryland market, but it seemed like kind of a difficult target. The shop had been burgled several times recently, and all the doors and windows had bars in front of them. But, as Anthony soon discovered, the skylight was unprotected.

He jumped on it and through, landing roughly in the store below. He ransacked the store as best he could, but soon hear the police coming. Anthony knew he had to get out quickly and ran to the window, but realized too late that while he could drop down from it it was too high for him to reach and pull himself back up. So, he tried the front door...but it was locked. Every entrance for him was locked. He could hear the police outside and knew he was in a dire situation.

Anthony ran to another door and opened it, only to find a metal accordion gate locked in place. He worked desperately to open it, reaching his hands through to the outside to see if he could bust the lock that way. As he did, a police officer discovered him and quickly cuffed his hands through the gate. They had to wait three hours for the owner to show up and finally let him out.

A much more dire situation happened on a cold January night in 1928, 16 year old Burley Gilmore decided he wanted to rapidly increase his wealth by entering the A&P store in Old Town afterhours. He’d seemingly found the perfect way to get in as well. Gilmore wasn’t expecting anyone to show up to stop him should they hear a noise, either; it was terribly cold, a night which ended up freezing six other Chicagoans to death. No one would dare leave their homes to check on a store.

Gilmore walked up to the back of the building and spotted the window that had been broken up, now covered in boards. He walked up to it and chopped through them, creating a hole just big enough for him to look through and see if he really wanted to rob the place. He stepped up on the window ledge and stuck his head through the hole. His feet took another easy step forward and managed to land on the bottom of the window frame. It snapped the upper part of the window down on his neck, trapping him. His head was stuck in the building, his body on the ledge outside, and there was no way he could escape.

No one did come out on that cold night to find Burley Gilmore on the ledge. If he had been screaming, perhaps no one would have heard — his head was stuck inside the store. It wasn’t until morning that he was discovered on the ledge. In the bitter cold, his body left to the elements, Gilmore had frozen to death while trapped in a burglary gone wrong.

Perhaps the most novel trap occured not in Chicago, but in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These three men ended up losing not their life but their freedom when they tried to rob the store of Foster, Stevens, & Co. in 1893. They snuck in after hours and opened up the register together, taking what they could. As soon as the drawer clicked open, the thieves heard a few strange clicks and were blinded by a flash of light, right in their faces. They froze, worried they’d been seen, but nothing more happened. They finished ransacking the till and went on their way.

What they didn’t know was that the store had been robbed several times recently, and management had come up with a novel way to protect themselves. A camera and flash bulb had been rigged up to the register, so that when it opened it triggered the camera to take a photo. The store took the photo to the police, who recognized the criminals. They were taken in and denied the robbery until confronted with the photo. It might be one of the earliest examples of using a photo surveillance system to combat thieves.