On May 22, 1924, Willman's store was burglarized. Sales people the next morning found a door unlocked and other unusual things they noticed led them to make a hasty inventory. They found about $400 worth of clothing, shoes and watches missing. The burglers had used a skeleton key to get in and had gone through the store putting things in sugar sacks they found in the basement.
When news of the burglary came out village people started to remember things they had seen. A car was seen parked in an unusual place. Then William Meyer and his sons who worked the Barney Ernst farm near Shorts Landing took shelter from a storm in an old log cabin and found sacks of Willman goods hidden there.
Three men who had been living at the reservoir were arrested. All had criminal records and were wanted for various other crimes. One of them was wearing a coat with a Willman tag in it.
