"BURGLAR CLUB."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 6

"BURGLAR CLUB."

POLICE DISCOVERY.

YOUTHS , MANY THEFTS.

CARRIED STOLEN GtftM.

(Fjpodi Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, March 31

While endeavouring to solve thirty robberies in Xewcastle police found that their inquiries led them to a cave near Merewether, at the entrance to which they found the name "Burglar Club" stamped in tinfoil. The police discovered that the members of this club were boys between 15 and 17, whom when caught said that they used to meet in the cave to plan their robberies and divide the spoil. In the cave the detectives found two long knives with' swastika symbols on the handles, hacksaws, hammers, gloves and various other implements which might have been used for a criminal purpose.

At the end of their inquiries the detectives found that they had traced about 75 per cent, of recent robberies in Newcastle to the operations of the burglar club, and they recovered hundreds of pounds' worth of stolen property. The youths were stated to have stolen cars and carried stolen guns and to have broken into houses for their thefts. Apparently they were heavy smokers for their age, as the police traced more than £100 worth of cigarettes and cigarette tobacco which they had stolen. On account of thsir ape they were dealt with by the children's court.