Bloomfield Savings Institution

Bank Information

Episode Type: Run Only
Bank Type: savings bank
Start Date: July 21, 1915
Location: Bloomfield, New Jersey (40.807, -74.185)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: aa554d5c

Response Measures

Accommodated withdrawals, Public signal of financial health

Other: Robbery triggered crowd and attempted withdrawals; bank reassured depositors that loss was small and insured.

Description

Robbery at the bank led to rapid public alarm and a crowd demanding withdrawals; managers reassured depositors that loss was small and covered by insurance, and most left satisfied. No suspension or closure reported.

Events (1)

1. July 21, 1915 Run

Cause: Rumor Or Misinformation
Cause Details: News of an armed robbery and initial exaggerated reports (amounts rumored to be much larger) sparked a crowd demanding withdrawals; panic subsided after officials explained the loss was small and insured.
Measures: Bank officials explained the stolen amount was small and fully covered by insurance; reassured depositors which calmed the crowd.
Newspaper Excerpt: News Starts Run, but Depositors' Fears Are Allayed - the amount stolen ... was fully covered by insurance, most of them went home satisfied.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. July 22, 1915 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, July 22, 1915

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Article Text

SHABBY PAIR TIE 2 BANK CLERKS; GET $7,715 CASH With Drawn Guns Raid Bloomfield InstitutionEscape Unhindered. EMPLOYES SHOUT ALARM FROM ROOF News Starts Run, but Depositors' Fears Are Allayed-Finger Print Clew. Bloomfield, N. J., July 21.-Two short, shabbily dressed men entered the Bloomfield Savings Institution shortly after closing time this afternoon, held up the two remaining employes at the revolver point, bound and gagged them, and departed with $7,715 -all of the cash in the bank's possession. The street outside the building was filled with people at the time, but no one suspected the self-contained pair who strolled down the rear steps of the bank and quickly lost themselves in the crowd. It was not until Frank J. Hochstuhl, a bookkeeper, and Alexander Dah!, a teller, had wriggled free of their bonds and rushed to the roof of the structure, from which they yelled an alarm, that any one of the several hundred persons who saw the robbers realized what had happened. In leaving the bank the men had locked the doors behind them. Police had to break through a window to enter. The news of the robbery flew swiftly, and in an hour the amount stolen had reached the hundred-thousand mark. People began to crowd the steps of the bank, demanding that they be allowed to get their money out before the institution failed. After it was explained to them that the amount of money taken was small and was fully covered by insurance, most of them went home satisfied. Only a part of the funds stolen belonged to the bank. Of that $2,700 was sealed in a package and had been left by Dr. T. Paczkowski for safekeeping until to-morrow. The robbers in their haste left a number of well defined finger prints, which, the police believe, will make their capture comparatively simple. It was about 3:30 o'clock when the two men entered the bank. Hochstuhl and Dahl had just completed counting the money preparatory to putting it in the safe deposit vault. Each was at his window when the robbers entered. Before either of the employes could realize what had happened he was staring into the muzzle of a revolver. "Throw up your hands!" the robbers demanded. Neither man obeyed. Both of them dived from their stools and scrambled beneath the shelter of the counter for the door leading to the cellar. The hold-up men leaped after them and drove them downstairs at pistol point. "Open your mouth and off goes the top of your head!" one of them warned, holding the two revolvers trained upon his victims while his pal deftly bound them hand and foot with a piece of clothes line. When Dahl started to object he was hit a stunning blow upon the head and kicked several times when he fell. Then handkerchiefs were thrust into the mouths of the trussed-up men and the robbers went through their pockets, taking the keys to the money drawers upstairs. After warning the bank employes not to move, the men left them and appropriated all the money on the floor above. They were evidently disappointed at the smallness of their haul, for they returned to the cellar and tried to make Hochstuhl and Dahl tell where the rest of the funds were kept. "We ought to put you out of business, anyway," they said, when told that this was all the money the bank had on hand. After again warning their victims not to move if they valued their lives, they slipped out: So thoroughly frightened were Hochstuhl and Dahl that neither was able to give a detailed description of their as-