Somebody was emptying the poor box at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, so the Rev. Joseph R. Watson rigged the box, wiring it to an electric buzzer that would sound in his study.

On Feb. 3, 1920, the alarm went off, and Father Watson, accompanied by a nearby store clerk, ran into the church and caught a man who said his name was Vaclav Krejci, a 35-year-old immigrant artist. When police officers searched the suspect, they found tools, skeleton keys and three slugs that Father Watson had placed in the box.

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