1932 - Change of Route Saved $13,000 Payroll - Armed Gang Cooled Their Heels At the Wrong Entrance of Mill At Dudley. Mass.

Dudley, Mass., Feb. 12 (A.P) - An attempt by armed men to steal a $13,000 payroll of the Stevens linen mills was frustrated today because the paymaster and his assistant took a route from a bank to the mills different than that usually taken.

Webster, Dudley and state police started an immediate search for the men, who had been marked in an automobile within 100 feet of the mill offices up to the time the mill officials learned of their presence.

H. Wadsworth Crawford, mill agent, told the police one of his workmen passed near the automobile and was confronted by one of the car's occupants who pointed a shotgun at him and told him to hurry away. The employe reported the matter to Crawford and he notified police.

In the meantime the paymaster had reached the plant through a door other than the one ordinarily used after varying the customary route from the bank to the mills.

The occupants of the automobile fled when the noticed the unusual activities within the mill.