While his brother, Charles, was busy running the Chicago Housing Authority, Morris H. Swibel was in charge of the rental office at Marina City. On the morning of September 21, 1968, Morris was robbed of $500 by two men he described as well dressed and carrying a flowered shopping bag that contained a sawed-off shotgun. (Left) Morris Swibel (standing), Vice President of Marina Management Corporation, in a 1965 photo with John Kolpack, a tailor for Marina City Valet Service.

Swibel said the men strolled into the rental office on the lower level near the east tower, called him by name, and asked him to look in the bag. “They were very calm and almost polite,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “It all happened in about 60 seconds. They weren’t interested in checks, just cash.”

The men motioned him toward a desk drawer that contained cash and ordered him to hand over the money. They stuffed the bills into the shopping bag, and then told Swibel to walk toward the nearby elevators of the east tower. After the men fled through the State Street entrance, Swibel called police.

Earlier in the year, two burglars made off with $5,000 in jewelry and other valuables (the equivalent of $34,000 in 2014) from the east tower apartment of a research scientist. They ran a vacuum cleaner to cover the noise they made breaking into the apartment. A neighbor who got suspicious saw the men as they fled the building.