Lavender Hill Master-mind Denies New York Robbery

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 17

Lavender Hill Master-mind Denies New York Robbery

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, November 13. One of the biggest jewel robberies in the history of the United States has turned out to be an utter failure It was foiled by an “oldfashioned" gear lever and a bunch of tough demolition workers who refused to help a New York cop. Result: Police recovered most of ’he two-million-dollars’ worth of jewels. As the city laughed today, the actor. Sir Alec Guinness, denied he had anything to do with the planning of it The New York "Dally News” cross-examined him aboard the Queen Mary as he arrived to start rehearsals for “Dylan.” Under the headline “Lavender Hill Mug Claims Alibi,” the “News” quoted him as criticising the robbers’ methods. I

“I should have popped the boodle into a lunch basket and I'd have got off clean." he said. The hold-up went like clockwork in the early stages Two "policemen" driving a black car flagged dowm a van which was carrying a fortune in jewellery a distributor Six men in the van were ordered at gunpoint into another van and driven about two miles to a car park. Four of the five bandits jumped into the "police car” and drove off. The fifth man got into the driver’s seat of the jewellery van and tried to make his escape But he had been brought up on automatic transmissions. He started the engine, moved the steering column gear lever—but omitted to put the clutch out.

The engine stalled. He tried again. It stalled again. Then he asked some demolition workers to show him how to get the car moving. They looked at his policeman’s uniform. "A cop that can’t drive a car?" they said. The man fled. At this point some workers allegedly began investigating the van One who knew about gear levers, drove the van on to the building site and the men began grabbing the jewels Some hid their takings around the building and others took them home. Police, who had been tipped off, began questioning the men and later recovered all but 750.000 dollars worth of the jewels. They expect to recover the rest today. 1