AN INTELLECTUAL CROOK CAPTURED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 19

AN INTELLECTUAL CROOK CAPTURED.

— ■ RISKS WORTHY OF A HUMAN FLY. Albert Edward Young, a criminal gymnast, has just been sentenced to five years of servitude ln London. He was the champion rope thief of the West En". It was with a deftly fashioned rope that he bewildered Scotland Yard and carried out some of his boldest jewel robberies. With j bis wonderful agility and nimble, supple body he took risks ln scaling houses worthy of a human fly. Young was one of the most hunted | crooks of which Scotland Yard has record. Scores of detectives were on his trail dayj and night. One criminal authority described him as an exceedingly intellectual criminal. He had no partners to betray him, preferring to work alone, and he did not tell his secrets to women. He had fastidious taste regarding jewellery and scorned jobs beneath his ability. Once the police surrounded the house In which ho lived in Norwood. Young did not know the detectives were hot on his track and a surprise arrest had been planned. Detectives gathered at the back of his house, while others stole quietly to tne | rsjoin where Young was believed hiding. I Bdt Young heard their footsteps and run-1 uin& to a balcony window jumped to a ! drain pipe and slid down hand oVer han*3 a distance of nearly fifty feet to the ground. A fall would have meant death, •for there were large spikes on a fence below. Another time he was captured and detectives started to take blm to Scotland Yard ln a taxicab, but when they ap-1 proached the gloomy building he vaulted j from the taxicab and disappeared before a i pursuit could be organised. * \ Young's policy was to keep a house under j observation for weeks before he raided lt, familiarising himself with all the details ot I its construction. He watched a fashionable I Park Lane residence for six weeks, and then one night while a dinner party was In progress he scaled the walls with his trusty rope, gained access to a dressing room and stole £3000 worth of gems In less than a minute. Then letting himself down by the : rope he disappeared before the robbery was | detected. j