1929 Game Recalls Mysterious Disappearance From New Haven of Famous Yale Fence Section

The event of the Harvard-Yale football game in 1929 brought out a rather startling bit of detective work on the part of Cantabrigians, or rather on the part of Bob Lampoon. That was the time when a very valuable eight-foot section of the famous Yale fence mysteriously disappeared from Pachs Studio in New Haven, on the Saturday before the game. It was recovered by its rightful owners, however, on the eve of the classic battle.

The day of the Yale-Princeton game eight members of the Lampoon board, drove down to New Haven in two cars. They had scouted the scene of the crime a long time before and had had their plans all made out. Every one was at the game, and Pachs Studio, where their sought-after prize lay, was deserted. They entered by jimmying a window on an inside court and gained their objective, the room where the section of fence stood. The Yale captain's picture was to be taken standing against it, as the Hefflefingers, the Mallorys, and others had been. The criminals wrapped their booty in burlap and, to add a sardonic note to the matter, left a copy of a cartoon from "Life" depicting burglars caught in the act of entering a house, on the table in plain view. The only clue which the New Haven people had to start on was the fact that a Massachusetts license plate had been carelessly uncovered and seen in the vicinity. Harvardians were suspected of the crime, but even after searches of the CRIMSON, Lampoon, and other buildings around Cambridge by Cambridge police and New Haven detectives, nothing was found.

Then on the Friday night before the Yale-Harvard game, the editors of the Yale Record were entertained by the members of the Lampoon board at a dinner given for them. After many after dinner speeches, suddenly one of the editors of the Harvard publication embarked on the subject of the stolen fence. He said that they were all very sorry to hear of the deed and had set their ace of detectives on the trail of the evildoers. Mr. Bob Lampoon himself set out after the perpetrators of the crime and at last was rewarded with success. With a quick flourish of the wrist, he moved back the table cover and showed underneath, the missing property. The Elis cheered, and cheered, and late that night sent it back to New Haven under special guard in a special crate. It had been kept in a house in a neighboring village and was returned to Cambridge to the Lampoon building Friday morning. A picture of the Lampoon janitor leaning against the historic fence had been taken and had been used as the cover of the Yale game issue of the Lampoon. The editors of the Record tolerated the prank good-humoredly, but some of the others were not so inclined to view it that way, especially when Harvard won that year with the score of 10-6.