£1500 BURGLARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 241, 11 October 1934, Page 8

£1500 BURGLARY.

JEWELLERY STORE. ALL BUT £137 RECOVERED. TWO SUSPECTS CHARGED. The story of the sensational tlioft of jewellery valued at £1345 from James PuscocV. Limited, Karangahape Road, on the night of September 20, the subsequent raid by detectives on a Xelson Street house and the recovery of the greater pait of the jewels, was told for the first time in the Police Court to-day when the preliminary charges against the suspects were heard. Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., was on the Bench. Senior Detective S. G. Hall prosecuted, and Mr. J. J. Sullivan appeared for the suspects. James Mr.Quoid, aged 25, described as a blacksmith and butcher, was charged that on September 20 lie broke and entered the premises of James Pascoe and stole jewellery valued at £1378 10/9, the property of James Pascoe; that on September 27 he received from Hilda Jackson a gold watch valued at £5, the property of James Pascoe, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained; alternatively, with receiving the watch, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained; and receiving a gold watch valued at £7 10/, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Hilda Jackson, a domestic, aged 33, was charged with receiving jewellery valued at £1000, and further with receiving jewellery valued at £1378 10/!), knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Through a Trap-door. Alfred Pascoe, manager of the Karangahape Road branch of James Pascoe, Ltd., said that on September 20 he locked up his shop about f>.3o p.m. On the floor above the shop was a jewellery workroom with a trap-door ill the ceiling opening on to the roof. The trap-door was secured by two bolt/5 let into the concrete. Witness received a message from the police, and when he went to the shop early on the morning of September 21 he found that it had been ransacked. Jewellery and repairs valued at £1545 3/3 had been stolen. The stock had been well sorted over and tickets and cards had been left behind. Witness identified jewellery produced in court as part of the stolen property. Its value was £1378, and the value of the jewellery not recovered was £137. Further evidence of the burglary was given by James Pascoe. proprietor of the shop, who said the trap-door in the ceiling was made of steel and wood, with steel on top. It was clamped down with two bolts. The trap had been forced with some instrument. (Proceeding.)