Time moves in such a way as to easily obscure the past. Modern conveniences and construction of more recent vintage abound in our everyday lives, but these also bury stories that illustrate past times with piquant flavor. At 19820 Wolf Road stands what appears to be a normal building, one like many others in town. However, where now a yoga studio and other business exist, was once an auto dealership that was the site of a hair-raising case of self-defense from a brazen criminal act.
To set the stage for the scene at hand, we’d have to travel back to the Mokena of 1930, a community in the grip of the Great Depression. In the autumn of that year, construction started on a large automotive garage and dealership on the newly concreted Wolf Road. At the site just south of the vacant Bowman Dairy plant, Chevrolets and Whippets would be sold under the firm of Heusner & Mager from Frankfort. The grand cost of the building came out to $17,000, with village carpenters Arthur Benson and Byron Nelson having charge of the work. Touted as being fireproof, the new dealership opened its doors to Mokena on February 6th, 1931.
By the spring of 1932, George Koeller was running things here, and was experiencing some problems with petty crime, as the place had been broken into a handful of times over the course of the past year. As the small, rural village slept in the early morning of Saturday, April 2nd, Koeller’s 23-year-old son, also named George, was overnighting in a room next to the garage’s office. Around 3:30am he was jarred from his sleep by his trusty dog, who had been agitated by some weird activity in the office. After calming down the hound by wrapping him in a blanket, the young Koeller, sensing trouble, grabbed his revolver and went to investigate.
Upon quietly inching open the office door, he was confronted by a stranger, a tall, thin man who would later be described as having a “prominent nose.” Leveling the gun at the presumed bandit, Koeller ordered the man to put up his hands, but instead, the intruder dashed out of the building, slamming an exterior door behind him. The young man went after him, and hastily fired several rounds through the door before throwing it back open. To his shock, the would-be burglar was untouched by the gunfire, and standing by the doorway, aimed his own gun point blank at Koeller, and fired a shot that inflicted a flesh wound on him. The marauder then took off on foot southward down Wolf Road, and into the inky dark morning.
Not an illustration of the events on Wolf Road, but rather an image from a late 1920s automotive magazine. Nevertheless, it helps paint a picture of the 1931 shooting. (Image courtesy of Richard Quinn)
Fueled by adrenaline and momentarily hampered by the jamming of his revolver, Koeller was able to fire four more rounds into the dark after the intruder. In a flash, a car flew past the business northbound on Wolf Road, while seconds later another barreled down the road in the opposite direction with lightning speed. Smarting from the wound, George Koeller made his way into town to the home and office of Dr. Ernest McMahan, who tended to his wound, which after all was said and done proved not to be serious. Authorities from Joliet came to the scene, but no trace of the burglar or of any accomplices would ever be found.
The elder George Koeller sold his interest in the auto business at the end of 1936, while his son moved down the road to New Lenox. Over the course of the years, the old dealership and garage on Wolf Road changed hands and came to house a foundry, which operated here for many years. Things are quiet within those four walls today, playing silent witness to an intense morning decades ago, when a Mokenian faced down an armed burglar.
