Robbers got away with jewelry heist but ditched the loot that was too heavy to carry

One hundred-forty years ago this month, “adroit cracksmen” made away – briefly – with what probably is the most lucrative burglary haul in Springfield history. The theft was carefully planned. The getaway, apparently, was not.

The theft took place in the early morning of March 3, 1883, from the J.C. Klaholt jewelry store on the south side of today’s Old Capitol square. Joseph Klaholt valued the swag – jewelry, diamonds and watches – at $20,000, or almost $600,000 today.

The thieves took two hours to enter the building and open and rifle the safe, in the process overpowering a watchman hired by downtown business owners.

The watchman, Fred Schutt, had noticed a paper pasted over a small hole in the alley door of Klaholt’s store – “the hole having been left there on purpose for the watchman to look in and see that everything was all right,” the Illinois State Journal reported. When he went to check, however, two masked men with revolvers disarmed Schutt, tied him hand and foot and threw a blanket over his face.

Investigators later determined that a lookout had been stationed in law offices upstairs from Klaholt’s. If someone came near, the lookout would lower an auger through a hole drilled in the floor and tap it several times.

“Thereupon the operators on the safe would secrete themselves until the person outside had passed by and would not resume the drilling process until the unknown parties were out of hearing,” the Journal said.

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“Having opened the safe, (the burglars) took out all of the trays, containing diamonds, watches, chains, rings and other jewelry, assorted them in boxes or packages, carried them out into the alley, and made good their escape with the booty. Such a thorough cleaning out of the valuables in any place was probably never before witnessed.”

Schutt managed to work his legs loose and stumbled out of the alley about 4:30 a.m. to alert police to the crime.

The burglars’ otherwise impeccably planned caper ran into problems after the theft. Or maybe they simply ended up with more loot than they expected.

At any rate, a week after the burglary, three boys playing in the Old City Cemetery, near the corner of Washington and Pasfield streets, found a gold locket and several jewelry cases lying in plain view near a grave covered by a large, flat stone.

The boys – Dan and John Hallihan and Frank Pearce, all between 9 and 12 years old – looked into the tomb, and one pulled out “a couple of rubber overcoats and a pair of overalls.”

“He could also see packages of large size,” the story said. The boys alerted Klaholt. Searchers rushed to the cemetery, lifted the stone and found two large satchels full of loot.

“It is presumed the robbers found the satchels entirely too heavy to carry and as likely to prove tell-tale burdens in daylight,” the Journal said, “so they sought as safe a hiding-place for them as they could find in the emergency, intending to return at a future time and carry away the ‘swag.’”

The burglars still did well. All the diamonds, valued at $3,000, were gone, as was about $4,000 worth of jewelry, for a final haul in 2023 dollars of about $200,000. But Klaholt was back in business quickly.

“The burglars did the sleek thing in getting away with the Klaholt stock, and Mr. Klaholt did the handsome in replacing the stock with a new and complete one so soon,” an Illinois State Register ad said a few days after the robbery. “He invites you to call and examine his rings, diamonds, watches, etc., which are elegant and first-class.”

The robbers were never identified. Unfortunately, there’s also no indication in newspaper coverage whether Klaholt rewarded the three inquisitive, and honest, boys who found his stolen jewelry.

Excerpted from SangamonLink.org, the online encyclopedia of the Sangamon County Historical Society.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Robbers made off with so much loot they ditched it when it got heavy