This Day in History: 1949-04-19

The Mahwah police were baffled by the finding of an abandoned safe found in a ravine on the Wehren Farm on Valley Road by four Ramsey boys on a fishing outing. The boys stopped their bicycles to rest when they saw the safe. When they returned home, they notified the Ramsey police who turned the case over to Sgt. Edmund Wickham of the Mahwah police. Nothing was found at the scene except a safe deposit key which was traced to a Nother Bergen man who reported that his house had been burglarized and the safe stolen. Four $100 savings bonds and other papers were missing. The police believe that the door to the safe had been jammed open elsewhere and the safe merely dumped in Mahwah. There were no further clues to who had stolen the safe. Later two bank books were found two miles north of where the safe was found. The police believed that more papers might be found and asked residents to be alert for them. (Bristow)