This Week in History, 1945: The Flashlight Burglar targets Yvonne De Carlo's jewels

Yvonne De Carlo (far left) in the chorus line at the Palomar baroom in Vancouver, 1939. Handout

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It was all crime all the time in the Sept. 4, 1945, edition of The Vancouver Sun.

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The rest of the world was celebrating the signing of a peace treaty aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay that officially ended the Second World War.

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But locally, the banner story was that some “nogoodnik” had broken into a Kerrisdale home housing Vancouver’s first major movie star, Yvonne De Carlo.

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“Brazenly risking arrest, Vamcouver’s flashlight burglar paid two visits Monday — only 16 hours apart — to the home of Mrs. K. Ross-Mackenzie, 3330 West 42nd, where screen actress Yvonne De Carlo, her niece, is staying,” reported The Sun.

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The first burglary was at 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, when the burglar made off with $8 before running away.

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“Vicky, my little dog, wakened me by barking and scratching at my bed, which caused me to yell out and frighten the thief away,” Ross-Mackenzie told The Sun.

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But the flashlight burglar struck a second time that night.

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“The burglar returned at 9:15 p.m., cut the telephone wires and was breaking in through a basement window of the Ross-Mackenzie home when the barking of dogs again drove him away,” said The Sun.

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“Belief held by Mrs. Ross-Mackenzie is that the thief was probably after jewels or money he believed Yvonne had brought with her from Hollywood.”

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Vancouver-born actress Yvonne De Carlo. Undated publicity shot, probably 1940s/50s. PNG

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Both De Carlo and the flashlight burglar were big news in Vancouver at the time. De Carlo had been hyped as “the most beautiful girl in the world” by a Hollywood studio, and starred in the movie Salome, Where She Danced.

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The flashlight burglar was a name given by Vancouver newspapers to one or more thieves who had terrorized the city that summer. They struck at night, used a flashlight, and cut the telephone wires so that homeowners couldn’t call the police for help.

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The burglar was very slick. During the first robbery, they had reached across De Carlo’s sleeping cousin to snatch a wallet. The burglar then broke into the living room, when Ross-Mackenzie was awakened by the dog and yelled out.

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“I saw a light, and thought Yvonne had gotten up,” said Ross-Mackenzie. “But then I realized the light was a bright one, and was playing all over the walls, coming up the stairs.”

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De Carlo was sleeping in her room at the time. Her door was closed.

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She had come to Vancouver to celebrate her birthday on Sept. 1. Salome, Where She Danced had opened at the Vogue Theatre on May 9, 1945, and did well financially, if not critically.

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It wasn’t a biblical story, as the name might imply, but a cheesy Wild West film where De Carlo portrayed a voluptuous woman dancing for cowpokes and outlaws.

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“Salome, lure of the west!” read the opening day ad. “Love prize of 1,000 swaggering gunmen from Texas to the Rockies!”