The Mystery of the Purloined Parkers

What do G-men, mobsters, and tampons have in common? The two most epic fountain pen heists in history.

- NATHANIEL CERF

There's a classic rule of thumb that journalists have followed for centuries: if you really want to know what is going on in a company or government office, don't interview the boss, get to know the secretaries and janitors.

What started as a simple profile interview with then 103-year-old retired Parker Pen Co. secretary Vivian Miner opened the door to a bombshell of a story. She might have been 103 years old, but Miner-who started working for Parker in 1941 at the age of 24still dropped office gossip like it's hot. While researching her story, I stumbled on a completely different heist story at Parker that likely happened around the same time! That story has a beginning and no known end, and Miner's story had no formal beginning but a solid conclusion.

One heist, we know for certain, began on Sunday, March 20, 1949, around 9:30 p.m., when three armed gunmen broke into a Parker warehouse in Janesville, Wisconsin, and tied up the night watchman, according to the Janesville Daily Gazette of March 21, 1949.

Police reports indicated the robbers wore masks, appeared to be in their 30s, and were of average height and build. The thieves also appeared to know what they were doing, as they targeted Parker 51 Signet sets a new line of gold-filled 51s that retailed for $48 a set. They ignored boxes of pens marked as rejects or lower grade pens and stuck primarily to the Signets and other 51s with gold-filled caps. Later stories in the paper revealed that more than 40,000 Parker pens and pencils were taken. The estimated value of the writing instruments at the time was around $363,000. That is more than $4.5 million today.