MAILBAG ROBBERY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 189, 8 May 1931, Page 9

MAILBAG ROBBERY

Substantial Reward Offer

£lOOO FOR INFORMATION '

(Rec. May 7, 8.30 p.m.)

Sydney, May 7.

The Commissioner of Police, on behalf of the Government, offers a reward of £lOOO for information likely to lead to the arrest of the train thieves who stole the mailbag containing £lO,OOO in notes from the mail train to Canberra on Friday.

When a mail-bag arrived at Canberra on May 1, instead of £lO,OOO in fivers and single notes, intended for the payment of Civil Servants’ salaries, it contained only stones and an old telephone directory. The mailbag was registered by the Commonwealth Bank, conveyed to the station by an armed guard, and transferred to a steel cubicle in the guard’s van. This was the customary weekly practice. The guard changed shifts at Goulburn, halfway to Canberra, and when the train reached the Federal capital it was found that the mailbag with the banknotes had been substituted for one containing rubbish. The inquiries took a fresh turn the following day when it was found 'that certain of the notes, believed to have been in the bag. appeared in the possession of tradespeople.