BIG JEWELLERY ROBBERY

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 147, 23 June 1894, Page 2

BIG JEWELLERY ROBBERY

4 Early yesterday evening it was reported to the police that a robbery, so remarkable for its daring that it is difficult to imagine how the perpetrators escaped detection, had taken place at the premises of the Goldsmiths' Hall Company, situated at tbe corner of Willis and Harbour streets. Tho facts, as stated -by those immediately concerned, are as follows :—lt: — It is the custom of Mr. L. Flegeltaub, the proprietor of the business, and his son, Mr. A. Flegeltaub, to lock up the premises for an hour or so every evening while they go to their hotel for tea They state that they loft the shop yesterday at about 20 minutos past. s, barricading the back door, which opens on to a passage, by means of a board jam bed against it and the counter, looking iv the usual way the front door, whioh is scoured by an ordinary lock and key. Two jets of gas were left burning, lighting up the shop and tho sidewalk. Mr. Flegeltaub, jun., returned to the shop about twenty minutes after six, and he says that on nearing tho window fronting Willis-street he noticed that several cases oi jewellery had been removed. Peering through the window in Harbour-street, he oould see the cases lying empty on the counter. Sending a messenger to his father, he tried the front door, and found that, though the key would not act, the door yielded to bis pressure. The reason the key would not act was obvious, as there was a skeleton key in the look inside. The counter was littered with empty jewellery cases, which had contained the propertiei stolen — jewellery to the value of about £2000. The cases on the counter bad been taken from the window, and their contents — consisting of gold watches, diamond 1 brooches and rings, bracelets of various descriptions — had vanished. Singularly enongh only the most valuable and portable portion of the stock is missing, as though the thiei orthioi-es were experts in the business, and knew a good thing when they saw it. Some of tho pieces of jewellery taken, the proprietor says, he valuos aB high as fifty guineas. No article of silver is missing, though there was plenty in the window, and the show casoa on tho counter, containing a , variety of brooches, bracelets, rings, &c, : w«re untouched. A oard of diamond rings. ■ worth from £300 to £400, was overlooked, The safe had been lett unlocked — which i seems rather a careless proceeding — and . though a sum of about £3 in cash is missing, , a number of gold watches done up in sepa- , rata packages were left. The cash-box, , which was lying on a Bhelf behind the counter, was emptied of its contents, amounting to about £7. Mr. Elegeltanb says thai , he had banked £59 during the day. A email . iron jemmy was found lying on the counter, , and beside it a tweed caso in which the jemmyj emmy , had evidently been accustomed to repose. The , premises, as our readers a r e aware, stand in , one of the busiest parts of the city/and it ie very singular that a robbery so daring Bhould have been committed under the very eyes of the public and tho police, two oi 1 whom were actually on dnty at the Evening Post corner about the hour named. The theory is that the thioves must have discovered that the shop was usually closed at a certain hour, and noticing the ; position of the most valuable jewellery in the window, opened the front door with the skeleton key, removed the tiaye from the window, and worked quietly behind the curtain whioh screens the interior of the shop from the window. It is stated that the proprietor has been repeatedly warned of tho danger of leaving his shop unprotected, on one occasion by a person who saw someone trying the door-handle. The police have the case in hand. Tbe Goldsmiths' Hall Company to-day offers a reward of £100 for the discovery oi the thief, and Mesßrs. Laery & Co. announce the sale of the remainder of the stock by auction next Friday and Saturday, as the proprietor has decided to leave Wellington on aocount of tbe robbery.