“Don’t be a Dead Hero!” Beer Store Heist –Part 2

January 6, 1960

The Beer Warehousing Company’s store at Carleton Place was held up by armed bandits on Saturday morning a few minutes after it opened at 10 o’clock. Two men entered, and one pulled a gun ordering the three attendants to lie face down on the floor. The two thugs then went in behind the counter, opened the cash register and helped themselves to what was in it. In the end they took off with between $3,000 and $3,500.

As the men did not wear masks it is obvious to the police that theywere strangers from a distance. It is thought that at least one other man stayed outside for the getaway. A green car was seen leaving the vicinity immediately afterward. The police are working on the case but if they have any clues naturally they are not divulging them. 

Cases like this are difficult to crack because the men are probably members of the underworld in some big city and no local man needs to case a beer warehouse after the New Year business. All such stores open at a given time and no precautions can be taken against armed robbery.

This is the first instance of a beer warehouse being held up in Lanark County. The one at Perth was burglarized twice. In each case the safe was blown in the night when the noise of a passing train disguised the sound of the explosion. 

While the Carleton Place Chief of Police was not available when the Gazette made inquiries about the hold-up on Wednesday morning, it is believed that all the money taken could not have been in the cash register. It was too much, and likely only enough was taken from the safe to start the day’s business. 

If the safe was open and empty the money must have been put in some other so-called safe place. But no place is safe when a man “has a gun on anyone who does not want to be a dead hero’.

Also read-The Big Beer Store Heist in Carleton Place

The Big Beer Store Heist in Carleton Place

Photo from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum– Brewer’s Retail can be seen down the street on the right.

There has been only one foiled bank robbery in Carleton Place, but in January of 1960 the Carleton Place beer store was hit with a 15 minute daring daylight holdup.   Two men got away with a beer carton stuffed with $3000  in cash at 10 am from the former Brewer’s Retail at Bridge and William Street.

The store had just opened that day when  two men forced three employees to lie face down on the warehouse floor while the robbers gathered up dollar bills and stuffed them into the beer case. To make things worse the two criminals eluded a police cordon of roadblocks set up around town.

It was the first armed robbery of any business in Carleton Place in years. Store employee Aubrey Nesbitt had seen two tall men walking on William Street just before 9 am when he came to work. At 10 am Jack Ryan opened the store doors for business and returned to the rear to help Nesbitt and Wallie McKittrick stock the refrigerator with beer.

Two men walked in the sore and brandished a gun and said “this is a holdup”.  The men forced Nesbitt to open a desk drawer where the money was kept after being just removed from the safe for the day. The men then emptied 12 pints of beer on the floor of the refrigerators and stuffed the money in the beer case while threatening store employees. Before they left they once again told the employees to lie face down or they would “blow their heads off”.

Chief Herb Cornell headed up the investigation assisted by Cpl. Larry Gartner of the OPP detachment. Now word if they were ever caught.

 

Historical Fact:

Years ago the former building where Brewer’s Retail sat on William and Bridge Street was one hopping area of town. There was a small Opera Hall, then the High School had a spot for awhile, but there was one interesting occupant in that building at one point in time. It was called a shooting gallery!

In June of 1960 Ed Campbell, grocer, was robbed and this became the second robbery of that same year.

Robberies in Carleton Place — Mr. Ed Campbell of High Street

CLIPPED FROM
The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada04 Jan 1960, Mon  •  Page 10