JEWEL ROBBERY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 303, 4 October 1938, Page 5

JEWEL ROBBERY

CAT-BURGLAR IN CHRISTCHURCH OVER £3BO WORTH STOLEN. • " MR F. CURTIS’ SHOP ENTERED. (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Over £3OO worth of . jewellery was stolen from, the shop of Mr Francis "Curtis, Cashel Street, when a very thorough job of breaking into tlio shop was made, from the back. The reinforced steel door embedded in concrete and brick did not 1 stand in the way for long. To gain entrance the burglar began working from Lichfield Street. He entered a block of buildings at approximately the rear of the jeweller’s shop ‘and made bis way over the roof-tops to a skylight above the rear of the shop. The skylight was smashed and the cat-burglar then found himself in the back of the shop, but cut off from his booty by two doors. The first had glass panels. One of these was shattered and the bolt withdrawn. Then the thief set about removing his biggest obstacle. Using a jemmy with apparently professional skill, he prised the wood architrave from its .concrete setting. Chips of concrete lying on the floor this morning testified to the painstaking ability of the intruder. A large shelf resting on a support fixed iii the woodwork, was the first to collapse. S When the door, with a heavy steel bar holding it securely to a part of the wall, was pushed back all the stolen articles were scooped up from the shop window and apparently taken away in a table-centre, which is now missing. Fortunately most of the valuable rings and other precious articles were stored away in the safe. The loss of the stolen goods is fully covered by insurance, Lloyd’s holding the policy. Two other attempts have been made to steal from the shop—one on September 4, 1935, was successful. On that occasion £ISOO wdSrth of jewellery was not recovered. In the second instance, about six months later, a smash-and-grab raid was attempted, but was not successful. ,

Mr Curtis is a son of Mr (Frank Curtis,.; of Ashburton.