Farmer Solves Mystery of Disappearing Chickens

Indiana, 1906

CAUGHT CHICKEN THIEF

Thomas Covington Solves Mystery of Disappearing Fowls

Repeated thefts of chickens from the farm of Thomas Covington, on the Covington road, west of the city, were solved this morning when Mr. Covington discovered that a steel trap which he had set last night to catch the thief had been drawn entirely through the small opening into the chicken-roost. Mr. Covington in triumph drew the trap and its prisoner into open daylight, acquiring at the same time a knowledge of the identity of the thief and a closer and more intimate acquaintance with a member of the skunk family than he had ever before enjoyed during his long experience as a farmer.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 24, 1906, p. 1.