WATCH THEFTS "Early Arrests Likely"

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 1

WATCH THEFTS "Early Arrests Likely"

Some of the watches stolen from two jewellers’ shops in Christchurch were recovered by detectives yesterday.

After information had been received on Wednesday night, detectives with search warrants visited four premises in Christchurch and one in Belfast, and detectives also interviewed several persons not on those premises.

The head of the Christchurch C. 1.8. (Detective Superintendent F. A. Gordon)

said last evening that early arrests were likely on charges relating to the burglary of three jewellers’ shops, from which more than $9OOO worth of watches and jewellery had been stolen in the last fortnight. Detectives working in pairs visited more than 30 houses, flats and places of work yesterday and interviewed more than 50 men. Mr Gordon said there was evidence linking the three burglaries, but the daylight robbery of the Jewel Casket, in Gloucester Street, did not appear to be connected with the other three crimes. “We know of watches being offered for sale in city hotels and other places at very cheap prices,” he added. “Persons buying the watches m;y not have known they were stolen. If they hand the watches into the police and give information about the circumstances in which they obtained them, they will not be put in the category of receivers. “The public have assisted our inquiries, and we still want information. Rewards totalling $468 for information loading to the recovery of the stolen property still stand.” Mr Gordon said the public had also supplied information about the robbery of the Jewel Casket after the publication of a likeness of one of the young men involved. More information in that case would also be very much appreciated.