Day with robber was adventure

By Les Avery.

Originally published Feb. 16, 1999: Of course, when Bob the Robber came to live with us we didn't know he was a robber. The year was 1939 and I was all of eight years of age when Bob the Robber moved in.

He took over Mom and Dad's bedroom on the first floor. It was the only bedroom on the first floor in our home that sat almost on top of the railroad tracks at 232 Magyar St.

Mom and Dad moved upstairs and we three children shared the only other upstairs bedroom. It was the tail end of the Great Depression and my parents were just trying to make a little extra money to put beans on the table. That is why they rented the bedroom to Bob the Robber.

Bob the Robber was a nice guy, friendly, easy to be with; he fit in well with our family. I liked Bob the Robber because he liked kids. He would hide pennies in his hair and then invite the children to dig around in his hair to find the pennies.

It turned out that the pennies weren't the only things he was hiding.

Not long after he moved in, a series of robberies took place in Wellington. Boxes containing cartons of cigarettes started turning up missing from some of the town's stores. Folks were puzzled by the happenings. Then one day, my mother went into Bob the Robber's room and she opened the closet door and to her amazement, stacked from floor to ceiling were cartons of cigarettes.

She went to town to talk with police Chief Eglin. At that time we had no telephone. There weren't that many folks in Wellington who did have phones. Police Chief Eglin came to the house and he and Mom set a trap.

The following Saturday, which was Bob the Robber's day off from work, mom asked Bob the Robber if he would run an errand for her. She asked him to go to Elyria to secure something for her.

I don't remember what Mother had cooked up as an excuse to get Bob the Robber out of the house for a few hours, but he was more than willing to make the Elyria trip. When everything was going according to the plan he threw her a curve.

He asked her if he might take me along, and I, not knowing then that Bob the Robber was a robber begged her to let me go. I wanted more then anything else to take that 18-mile ride to Elyria with him. Going to Elyria was getting to go to the big city.

Not really wanting to send her son off with a robber, but not wanting to blow the plan that she and police Chief Eglin had hatched, she agreed to my going along.

I remember how excitedly I sat there next to Bob the Robber as we left town. When we got to Elyria and he had picked up whatever item it was that Mom had requested that he secure, I talked him into going over to Cascade Park, so we could visit the old bear that was chained and kept in a big iron cage there. All day long he would pace back and forth and I liked to go see him. He fascinated me.

Meanwhile back home all kinds of things were going on that I would only discover in hindsight. No sooner had Bob the Robber and I left town when my mother sent my brother Kenny to town to get police Chief Eglin. Kenney took the short cut to town, running down the path next to the railroad tracks.

As kids we weren't allowed to take the shortcut to town along the tracks. That route was seen as too dangerous, but this was an exception and soon police Chief Eglin and Kenny were back at the house. It was then that police Chief Eglin confiscated the loot and set up the stake out.

My mother was deeply concerned about me, because as police Chief Eglin had it figured out, we should have returned by then. What they didn't know was that I had talked Bob the Robber into taking me to Cascade Park.

Mother started to worry, certain that Bob the Robber had gotten wind of the sting and had left town taking me with him as a hostage. She was never going to be able to forgive herself for letting me go.

Oblivious to all of this, I was simply enjoying my Saturday at Cascade Park watching the old bear. Finally Bob the Robber told me it was time to go and we piled in the car and unsuspectingly headed back to Wellington.

Everything seemed fine as we turned on Maygar Street and drove into the driveway, but then when the car had come to a stop and just as Bob the Robber got out, police Chief Eglin stepped out and handcuffed Bob the Robber.

My mother ran over to me and gave me a big hug, waiting to make sure I wasn't hurt and I just stood there confused by all that was going on.

Police Chief Eglin hauled Bob the Robber off to the jail in the courthouse. It was the talk of the town. I felt really special to think I had spent several hours with a robber just before he was arrested.

I think it may have been the biggest thing that happened to me during my eighth year of life. I never saw Bob the Robber after that and mother never again rented out a bedroom in our house. I, with a few friends, went up to the jail to see if we might catch a glimpse of Bob the Robber through one of the windows, but we didn't see him.

I felt like a pretty special kid having been with a real honest-to-goodness robber. My friends thought I was special too; they would like to have been able to say they had been with an honest-to-goodness robber, but those bragging rights were mine to hang on to and cherish.

As far as I was concerned, my time spent with Bob the Robber was great. It couldn't have been any better even if it had been John Dillinger. For a small town boy it was as good as it gets and it was enough.