The State - News from Sept. 9, 1987

Two would-be robbers using a stolen skip loader tried to steal a 5,000-pound safe from a supermarket in the mountain community of Oakhurst, but they did not get far. Store assistant manager Chuck Smythe said seven night workers heard the skip loader smashing through the glass front door of the store. The two bandits, one carrying a rifle or a shotgun, were wearing white sheets over their heads. The store employees ran to an upstairs office, locking themselves inside and calling Madera County sheriff’s deputies. The heavy, free-standing safe was near the front door. The bandits battered it and managed to knock it over, dislodging the safe tumblers, but were unable to pick it up with the small skip loader. They fled in frustration before sheriff’s deputies arrived.