A BANK NOTE MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 256, 28 October 1899, Page 13 (Supplement)

A BANK NOTE MYSTERY.

i'2ooo LOST IN THE STREET,

An extraordinary story of £2000 in bank notes being lost in the street was told recently by Mrs Maynard Brown, wife of Mr Maynard Brown, an artist, of 32 Great Or-monde-street, London. She said she visited a bank to obtain £2000. which her husband W as desirous of Investing. She received bank notes to the amount in question, three being of the value of £500, one of £200, and three more of £100. In addition to the bank notes the cashier handed Mrs Brown a paper bag coutuinlng some £00 in gold. Placing the notes, folded in four, between the purse and paper bag, and carrying the whole in her left hand, Mrs Brown left the bank, crossed Holborn, ami walked to her home in Great Ormonde-street. Upon her arrival she discovered, ro her consternation, that all the notes had disappeared. Information was at once given to the police at Bow-street, ami immediate steps were taken to prevent the cashing of the notes should they be presented at the bank. Questioned by a pressman, Mrs Brown stated that she was at a loss to account for (be disappearance of the notes. She held them in her hand, and walked straight home. She could not remember anyone pushing against her on the way, and, to the best of her recollection, there was no other person at the bank counter when the money was handed to her. Mrs Brown further added that she was alone both going to and coming from the bank. Fortunately the bank officials were able to supply Mr Brown with the numbers of the notes, and every bank in London and the country was noticed of the loss. A reward of £30 was also offered for the recovery of the money. Mrs Brown said it had come to her knowledge that a short time after she had lost the" notes a Great Northern'railway cart, passing by the bank, "caught some papers up from the gutter on its wheel." The driver, a young man. was about to take it off, when a tall, dark gentleman with a beard "ran up, and snatching it away from the carman, walked quickly up Southampton Row." Mrs Brown really believes that these papers were her notes.