EXPERT GANG.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 53, 4 March 1926, Page 15

EXPERT GANG.

POSTAL THIEVES AT WORK

SYDNEY POLICE BEWILDERED,

iFrom Our Own Corresixindent.)

SYDNEY, February 26.

Sydney detectives are frankly bewildered at the thoroughness of recent mail thefts, particularly the ease this week, when letters containing more than £400 worth of Tiank notes ana negotiable securities were stolen from inside the mail branch at Central Square, Sydney.

For absolute audacity the case lias had no equal here. The registered letter room at the Central (Square branch of the G.P.O. is on the second floor of the large building overlooking the Central railway station, and the room itself is almost in the centre of the floor.

A recent edict of the Department forbade employees to have their early meal in this room, so that, for twenty minutes only, the room has been locked up and deserted for the last seven days between the hours of 2.45 a.m. and 3.5 a.m, while the men employed there are on the floor below having refreshments. Even then, the floor is not deserted, for some men are working in a room in one corner, and are constantly moving to and fro.

It has been proved .since that the thieves must have been responsible f<>r the removal of the lock from a subway door, and that undoubtedly they passed the men usually employed in the registered mail room while the latter were descending for their meal. Possibly the, , ? were dressed in postal uniform. At any rate they took the risk of discovery when they snipped the wires holding the door of the registered letter office in place, and for IS minutes they worked at feverish haste selecting the most valuable letters in that day's posting.

One letter alone contained £300 in £1 notes consigned by a Sydney bank to a country branch. Other letters contained money orders, postal notes, and some packets taken also contained valuable jewellery.

The theft stamps itself as being the work of someone with a complete inside knowledge of the working of the Postal Department, and the police are satisfied that if they can get the perpetrators of this week's raid Ihey will have tneir hands on the gang of thieves who nave been operating on postal parcels on trains since October of last year. As it stands at present. however, there is nothing to throw suspicion in any quarter.