DARING THEFTS OF RINGS

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20956, 9 September 1933, Page 13

DARING THEFTS OF RINGS

SUBSTITUTION OF CHEAP IMITATIONS • [THE PRESS Special SerrsM-I AUCKLAKD.-Sept«Ql»or S. A solitaire diamond ring vahwl at more than £SO was stolen in daring fashion by a well-dressed ycsmg woman, before the eyes of an assistant, in a city jeweller*? shop early I this afternoon. The audacity of the theft and the cleverness with which the woman lifted the ring from a pad holding a number of them, awl substituted a cheap imitation, completely deceived the attendant At the time there was only cese assistant behind the counter. T&» woman asked to see some dsaamwl rings at about £SO, and mentioned tha* she intended buying one as a present for a friend who would shortly celebrate her twenty-first birthday. A pad on which a number of rings were arranged was placed on the counter. The woman examined several of thces. carefully drawing a glove- from her left hand as though to try one oa. She allowed her hand to rest for * moment on the pad, and it is then that the substitution, is bettered So have been made. The imitation wMca the woman left was of similar desta to the stolen ring, even to uawwi chasing on the band. Another assistant had been defrauded sunOasty. apparently by the same thief, earlier in the week. ._ . Still another jeweller was rawed. He noticed that a ring was misname from one of the pads, and realised that the woman, who was still in the shop, must have taken it; but fee dacidad to give her a chance to return it- Hfc therefore deliberately turned his back, ostensibly to get a box for a ring sfen had ordered, and in a mirror toe saw* the woman put the missing ring *•<* in one of the pads. The woman astarf that the ring she had ordered should be put aside for her, and said she would return later to pay for it When she had gone the jeweller found tea* the ring she had returned was merely an imitation of the costly one which he had previously missed.