Capt. A. A. Walker Locates the Leader of Chicken Thief Gang at Kenosha.
Did It On Wholesale Plan.
Not Contented With Taking a Few at a Time, Gang Took Up to Fifty at Once.
The wholesale chicken thefts that have been so sorely perplexing Zion City people for the last few weeks have come to a climax at last. There may be other thieves at the business and from a report turned into the police last night there seems to be someone else on the job, for D. W. Davis, 3108 Ezekiel avenue, found two men in his chicken coop about midnight and fired a gun at them. Two officers were sent out from the police station, but no trace could be found of the thieves.
The chief of this gang of thieves was discovered at Kenosha yesterday. Chief of Police A. A. Walker has been on the job for a few weeks trying to run the guilty people down. He reported the thefts to the chief of police at Kenosha and told him to arrest anyone bringing chickens from Zion City. A trap was laid out and it worked. Alfred Olson, alias Johnson, was caught with 32 chickens in his possession. He sold them to a Kenosha man for $22. Later Olson was brought to Zion City and there charged with the wholesale theft of chickens. At first he denied the charge, saying he merely bought the chickens from another man and acted as agent. Walker put him through the grill, however, and he finally confessed.
He admitted in all the theft of 415 chickens. From some houses he took as many as from 20 to 50.
Olson says he grabbed the chickens by the wings and placed them in a sack. He sold his chickens in Kenosha and then went on to Racine and bought potatoes at 50 cents a bushel. He brought the potatoes to Waukegan and disposed of them there at $1 a bushel. He averaged 75 cents a hen and this added up, would total $300 which he has cleared at the business.
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