Charles Dattilo surveys stores burned records (left) while Detective John Mazza inspects post office fingerprints.

Junior Robbers Loot, Set Fire in Brookline.

A "junior crime wave" hit Brookline early Wednesday.

Five places - a bank, the post office, the library, the American Legion Post and a fruit store - were robbed by what police say was a teenage, or slightly older, gang.

The fruit store, where the gang obtained less than $3, was set on fire, causing estimated damage of more than $2000.

The robbers were almost caught at their last stop, the clubhouse of the Brookline American Legion Post #540, at 520 Brookline Boulevard.

Patrolman James Grubbs noticed a light in one of the rooms around 3:00am and investigated. When he entered the first floor he heard "at least two people" running through the cellar. No money or other valuables were missing from the Legion home.

  
Librarian Dorothy Lally with her remaining stamps (left) and Bank Clerk Dorothy Rinne speaks to Detective F. J. Bingham.

In the Brookline Savings & Trust Company offices at 740 Brookline Boulevard, $10 was taken from the dest of Assistant Cashier J. W. Tarn. The vaults were not bothered but at least half a dozen desks were ransacked.

Heaviest loss was in the newly built fruit market of Charles Dattillo, 815 Brookline Boulevard. The thieves, apparently angered by finding only $3 in the cash register, started a fire which badly damaged the walls and ceiling.

At the Brookline Post Office, 740 Brookline Boulevard, the thieves found no money.

In the Brookline Branch of the Carnegie Library, at 730 Brookline Boulevard, less than $5 was taken and a few pennies and stamps were left in the cashbox.

* Copied from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - April 28, 1949 *