In the late 19th century, Denver was the beating heart of the Colorado mining boom, regularly shipping millions of dollars in precious metals across the country via the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. In 1884, a heavily armed gang of train robbers devised what seemed like a bulletproof plot to hijack a massive shipment of gold bullion valued at over half a million dollars. Through insider informants, the outlaws secured the confidential departure time: the gold express was scheduled to roll out of the Denver depot precisely at midnight.
The gang positioned themselves at a secluded bend in the tracks outside the city, preparing to dynamite the rails and overpower the guards under the cover of pitch darkness. What the robbers did not account for was a sleepy typesetter at a local printing house. While setting the type for the railway's public monthly timetable, the printer inadvertently swapped the digits, listing the midnight express departure as 10:00 PM.
Upon discovering the widespread distribution of the erroneous schedule to local banks and merchants, station officials faced a dilemma. Rather than turning away confused shippers and passengers who had arrived early, the station manager made a quick executive decision to dispatch the bullion express at 10:00 PM according to the misprinted time. The train departed smoothly, hurtling through the night two full hours ahead of its actual internal schedule.
When the outlaw gang finally set their trap across the tracks at midnight, they were met with total silence. The gold bullion had already arrived safely at its destination while the robbers sat waiting in the dark, completely oblivious to the fact that a simple typographic error had robbed them of their fortune.