An Extensive Bank Robbery.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 4124, 22 September 1883, Page 4 (Supplement)

An Extensive Bank Robbery.

The times were diffi cult for men of business, and the banking firm of Rogers, Olding, Sharpe, and Boycott had their own peculiar anxiety. One Monday morning in November, 1544, when the acting partners went down to business at the usual hour, they wonj confronted with what, at tho fil'st glance, must have looked like a threat of ruin. When the great iron safe, in which all the valuables of the bank were kept, was opened, it was found to lie empty. When it was closed on Saturday night it had contained more than £40,000 in bank notes, over t'l,ooo in gold, and £5,000 in bills of exchange. The safe had been opened some time in the course of .Sunday with one of its own keys, the whole of the money and bills taken out, and the iron door closed again. The iron safe was in an inner office, and was meant never to bo unguarded. One of the partners lived on the premises, and one of the clerks was always supposed to be in the bank day and night. On Sunday, the 24th of November, the day clerk asked permission to go out for a few hours, and as one of his employers was on the preiai.es,the leave was given. It was thought that, during his absence, the robbery was effected by some persons who had been helped and warned by a dishonest servant;, The thieves wero prevented from proiiting by their immense booty by the admirable promptitude with which the matter was followed up. It was a race between the owners of the notes and the robbers which should be first in reaching foreign banks. The thieves had the start, but so promptly were the numbers and dates of the stolen notes communicated to home and continental bankers that the thieves were unable to make use of them. Their promptitude was shown in the fact that a single noto, which in the haste had been omitte.! from the list, was instantly cashed at the Uaiik of England before the firm had disco/ered the omission. Two months after the robbery the Bank of England repaid to Messrs Rogers and Co. the value of the stolen paper, £40,710, upon the usual guarantee of indemnity in case the notes should ovur be presented for payment. In the end the actual loss was small, but until the notes had been recovered and cancelled at the Bank of England a constant source of anxiety remained. A reward of £3,000 was first offered. This failing, it was reduced to £2,000; and ai the end of about two years, just after notieo had been given that, on a day named, it would be further reduced to £-_\(X)0, the notes were got back and tho £2,500 was paid.—" Samuel Sharpe, by V. 0. Clayden."