NAPOLEON OF CROOKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 72, 26 March 1921, Page 19

NAPOLEON OF CROOKS.

J>OroilT BY ARMY OK DETECTIVES. Tlierp is fl stuhJl but exceedingly clever detective force entirely unconnected with the police, which Is wagtn.c; perpetual warfare .if- -.<t a ga-n-g of tMeves who seem to *.T>o<'iu;it.f> in rslils on jewellers' estalhMvhments aud railways. Quite recently it was discovered that a mna who had cleverly removed a valuable diamond from a rlnjr he had li«d on approval and substituted a worthless •*toiio lrail a few dnys earlier stolen the contents of a railway nagon. By manlpujatlng the labels and dispatching "fake" u-le.grams be had caused the wa«<m to "c diverted from Its <-oure=e to a lonoly siding where confederates were wititing with two molor lorries. But he was caught Ijy one <»f the niembers of this band of detectives, who are employed by insurance com/panics. How necessarj- sixh a force w (remark.-* the I'aris correspondent of the "Daily Mirror") may lie known from the fact that, during the yenr that has just closed the underwrilens have sustained n li>ss of Co per cent over premiums received! iHecently one of Hie i]i»t«*Ure« tracked nnp of the cleverest jewel thieves on th" Continent from .J'nris to the Kiviera, a-cross ■Into Italy, bark into France, and away into (iehimny. finally causing his arrest in Berlin, detective ediiid hare laid him by the heels at niiy one of liU* stopping places, for he left behind Jiim a trail of vic-timiVed jewellers. But the detei-ti-.e was iK>t in a hurry. Wlien he mud.' hL« pounce lie hail caught four either r-onfe<lerate« in his ncl. From (he moment lie set mil aft.-r his ijtmrry be whs ...i.a.ient that would be a meetiric #Wth other members of a Kaiiif, and -t was fr. r tliw that he hud waited. Twelve months ago another detective set out in eenri'h of a pai-kafre of jewels That had l>een sent from Home tn India, but had nol reached Ms <le~tlnati-on. Ah the I wnlt of bis in<|uirief he came to the conclusion that the jewels were still in' Italy, and were only mislaid. * rty cajolery and threats he got the posxai authorities u> move in the matter. A ponernl order wae to the various thronph which the sTvouW have paswd, and at last the Package arrived in India. Hut for the perwevemntv of the detective the parcel would In all probability still be hidden away <vn tlie sh«of of some small I'"M offi^ , , while tlie company that employs Mm would be the poorer by many thousands of pounds. ('areler-suess costs tnsiira.Tice companies almost as much a fraud. riiiKs or bracelets that have I>een mislaidNot 10-jft ago a woman walked turo the oflices "f an company and lodiprd l a claim for £15,000 for a rope of pearl? that had difiapreaxed. She had 110 Idea what had happened to it. She might have raWaid It. As a matter of fact_ she 'had. It was found a few days later in a summer house beneath a Heap of newspapers. But It is the clever 'cang of Continental thieves who cive d-n&uniQCQ coTn.pa3iile>» most trouble. Between them and the detectives Is w.ige<l a constant battle of wits. At the head of thie can K of thieves Is the nKieter mind. So far he has eluded the detectives, tbonsrh his band has been t'hinmed during the lust twelve months. His work consists in orffanfcing; the big coups. Ills hand ie seen every time a 'bis theft occurs. H t= the arnbltion orf every, detective employed by the insuran<'e fouipamies to lay t'ls Napoleon by the heels.