James Utley Arrested for Breaking Into Safe at Coats Hardware, April 1, 1925

Breaker of Safe Is Apprehended. . . James Utley Awaits Trial in Jail for Breaking Safe of Coats Hardware Co. . . Reclaim Checks and $510

Detective stories with their plots of burglary and getting by with it, are responsible for a sordid story of crime enacted, not in the “wild and wooly” West, but right here in the town of Smithfield, according to the confession of James Utley, who was arrested last night for breaking the safe of the Coates Hardware Company on the night of March the 6th.

On the morning of March 7th, Jesse and Milton Coates, proprietors of the Coates Hardware Company, found the combination of their safe jammed and, being unable to open it, had to secure an expert. They missed around a thousand dollars n cash and checks from the safe. No alarm was made but quiet work soon found a clue. It developed that young Utley, who had previously hung around their place of business, was spending a good deal more money than he was known to earn at The Herald office where he was employed as general helper. A purchase of a $72 radio set in Raleigh, for which he paid cash, was suspicious, and he was known to have changed bills of large denominations at various places in town. A Saturday night excursion with an automobile hired at an unusual price and the exhibition of money at different places brought the suspicions of the hardware company to a climax.

Last night about 7 o’clock, Chief Holt served a search warrant on Utley in front of Hood Brothers Drug Store, and the young man confessed to the whole affair. He accompanied the officers to his home where $510 in cash was recovered. He then showed them whee he had hid the secret drawers of the safe in the ware room of the hardware store, and checks to the amount of $30.73 were found with them.

Utley told how he made an entrance to the store through the wareroom, managing to raise the bar which closed the back door of the store. He claimed the safe was locked but the combination was torn up, a can opener, icepick, chisel, players and a large screw driver having been used to demolish it.

He was placed under $1,000 bond for his appearance at the August term of Superior Court. In default of giving bond he was placed in jail.

From the front page of the Smithfield Herald, Wednesday morning, April 1, 1925

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