TRAP FOR JEWELLERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3146, 4 December 1922, Page 8

TRAP FOR JEWELLERS.

Details have become known (says The Times) of a carefully-planned and successfully-executed trick carried one at the Piccadilly Hotel, London, by which two assistants of Messrs .Mappin and' Webb, the jewellers, were robbed of a diamond ring valued at £290. Posing as an American. “Mr Holman, of -New York,’’ a man engaged a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Piccadilly Hotel, slept there the night, and the next day called at the Regent street premises of Messrs Mappin and Webb. He looked at a number of dia.mond rings, and asked for seyeral to be sent down to the hotel for his wife to make her choice. The manager was rather suspicious, and sent one of the most experienced assistants and another employee to the hotel, with strict injunctions that the rings were not to go out of their sight. At the hotel they were received by “Mr Holman” in his private sitting-room. He asked if he might take the rings across the corridor to the bedroom, in which he said his wife was lying ill, at the same time nodding to the half-open door. Suspecting an old trick, the chief assistant promptly said that he was not at lilierty to let any ring out „ of his sight iunless it was paid for. The man protested, but at last began examining the rings himself. He picked out one of the finest, and then suddenly pushed the assistants away, dashed through the door, and closed it. Doth men jumped after him, hut when one seized the door knob it came off in his hands. The screw semiring it to the central pin had been removed. They ran to the bell, and found the rope had been c ut; and when they tried the house telephone they got no answer, as it had been put out of action. Finally, they went to the window. and succeeded in attracting attention, but by the time they were released,' from the r 6Olll in which they had been trapjied the 1 man had vanished with the diamond ring. There had never been any woman with him. and ho explained her absence at the hotel the previous day by saying I hat she was following later with the luggage. and in that way had disarmed any doubts there might, have been of the' genuine character of his visit. • Subsequently at Marlborough street Police Court Howard Blanchard. Jjl, described as am American citizen engaged in aviation, was charged with, stealing by means of a. trick a. diamond ring valued at £290. Blanchard is a tall, slightly built young man. He wore a light tweed suit, and his hair was slightly hr us hod back. DetectiveSergeant Wood said Hint the theft was particularly daring ami ingenious, and he would like a reinand in order to make further inquiries about the prisoner. When arrested and told the charge. Blanchard said: “i admit taking the ring. 1 pledged it at Liverpool for £6O, and i have got £46 of the money in notes left.” Later Blanchard made the following statement: — “I am extremely sorry that this should have occurred. There is no crime without a motive. I stole the ring to get sufficient money to enable me. to enter the Daily Mail gliding contest, for which they oiler £IOOO prize. As I am an expert aviator, having served Ihree years in the Air Force during the war as lieutenant. I stood a goocf change of winning, and then would have paid hack Mappin. and Mchh.” The devotion of dogs was illustrated lately at the Metropolitan Hospital. Kingsland road, London, A little mongrel, coming from ofit a side street, placed its paws on the hospital railings, and by whining and harking, at--11 acted a largo crowd. All efforts to make it go away were without success. After several minutes a young nurse appeared and gazed at the distressed creature. Then a smile spread over her feature, and, gently picking up the dog .she took it into the hospital. If then turned nut that the dog’s master had been admitted into the hospital and his devoted pet had followed him. Why the ex-Kaiser wrote his war hook is told by Mr Leonard Spray in the Daily Chronicle. He says that he claims that the hook had its origin in Wilhelm's desire to justify himself to his sons: in other words, to attempt to prove that tin* hiss to the ex-Crown Prince of his heritage of throne and empire was due to no guilt ot his father. It is intended as a sort of political testament for the House of Hoheiizolicru. As an effort to prove his own guiltlessness, the book remains, hut that it is now being given to the world is clue to the promptings of the late ex-Kaiserin. From the time of her death Wilhelm has worked ceaselessly, expanding the short notes already made into a stout volume.