Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. View of Theodore Harkcom, police officer, crawling out of tunnel in police hat and uniform. Workers discovered a tunnel beneath the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Watts when replacing the flooring in the bank. Unused acetylene torches, tanks, and hose were found in the tunnels. Indications show the diggings had been abandoned along with the vault equipment, two or three years ago. The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Watts has no connection with the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles. This photograph appears with the article "Where 'Gopher Bandits' Burrowed in Vain: Old Tunnel Under Bank Reveals Robbery Plot," Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 1935: A1. Text from newspaper caption: Policeman T. C. Harkom is shown creeping from the tunnel bored by human moles beneath the floor of a Watts bank. Tunnel entrance was barred by an iron grating which bank robbers had loosened to begin arduous labors that came to naught. Tons of earth had been moved beneath the bank but no effort was made to drill through the floor of the vault. Handwritten on negative: T C Harkom Text from negative sleeve: 2205, Officer T.C Harkom, Bank job, [stamped:] Sep 26 1935
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_8595 ark:/21198/zz002dgh76
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Banks--California--Los Angeles Police--California--Los Angeles Harkcom, Theodore Charles, b. 1901
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