JEWEL ROBBERIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

JEWEL ROBBERIES

Some Historic Coups

Of all the gigantic coups that history discloses in the art of jewel robberies none is more astounding in its scope or result than that made in France in the year of 1791, when the whole of the French Crown jewels were swept from the treasure house under the very nose of the national guard. It is said that the jewels were worth £25,000,000 of money. 'They included the enormous "Regent" diamond which was bought by the Due d'Orleans from Pitt, the Governor of Madras, for two and a half millions of francs. The Revolution was the era of universal plunder, and it occurred to some enterprising gentlemen that they could take the lot if the affair was properly managed. The attempt was made at night. The walls of the guard-house was scaled with ladders, which were drawn up after the thieves into the room containing the treasures. Having possessed themselves of the whole of the enormous hoard, and being interrupted, they let themselves down with ropes and escaped, although soldiers were on sentry duty. A large number of the diamonds, luckily, were traced at once. The "Regent" was found in a wine shop, and one by one the stones were returned to their original resting place. Years ago there was a clever robbery of jewels from the great centre of London's diamond trade, Hatton Garden. The robbery appears to have been planned with wonderful foresight and patience. It was ascertained that a merchant who traded in precious stones was in the habit of receiving large consignments of gems every few months. The exact day of deliveries was not known to the thieves; but that they might be on .the spot they rented a room below that of the merchant, and there installed themselves in the guise of honest traders. Information from South Africa warned the men that" a parcel of valuable jewels wtfuld be delivered by a special messenger on a stated day. A watcher at the window closely scanned every person who approached the office. At length the messenger was detected. The men in the room forestalled him on the stairs. A drugged cloth was placed over his mouth, he was dragged into the office, bound and gagged, and within an hour the robbers were on their way to Paris with £8000 worth of jewels in their possession.

A smooth-faced young man walked into a shop in Oxford Street, London, and asked to be shown some lovely diamond bracelets that were exposed for sale in the window. He chatted with the jeweller, admired the bracelets, and buying a paltry trinket, said he would call again. He did call again in about a fortnight and asked to see the bracelets once more. He handled them, examined the stones minutely, and then, suddenly turning to the assistant, he asked to be allowed to look at another trinket which, exhibited in the far corner of the shop window, needed some trouble to be dislodged. The trinket was handed to him. It did not satisfy his taste, and again he purchased a trifling article of jewellery and left the shop. When he was gone the jeweller turned to examine his bracelets. They looked all right, and he replaced them in the window; but two or three days later, when showing them to a good judge of diamonds, the judge pointed out that all the stones in them were artificial. What had happened ? The young man had taken models of the various bracelets exhibited, had returned home, and had had shams made. The setting was real gold, but the diamonds were common crystals. On his second visit, when the jeweller's back was turned, he cleverly substituted the sham bracelets for the real, and he decamped with some thousand pounds worth of good stuff in exchange for perhaps £50 worth of eighteen carat gold.