JEWEL ROBBERIES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 28

JEWEL ROBBERIES

LUEE OF PRECIOUS STONES

METHODS OF CROOKS

Precious stones have always tempted the skilful crook. They are portable, and there is so much value in a small compass. But "realising" on the "swag" is not too easy. I know a, lapidary who declares that he can identify, any stone that has once passed through his hands, from the character of the work he has put on it in cutting the facets, writes the London journalist, H. L. Adam, in an English paper. This is no idle boast. He was on one occasion able to assist the police to capture a gang of jewel thieves who had got away with a haul of gems from a country house. He was at a fashionable dance when a diamond worn by one of the male guests -attracted his attention. He recognised it as a stone which he had been commissioned to match with another in a piece of jewellery belonging to a society lady. He notified the police, and it was found that the piece of jewellery in question was among some gems that had been stolen from a country house. The man wearing the gem was the leader of the thieves, whom the police were thus able to, "round up." .IN HATTON GARDEN. The stone had been taken from its setting, and no doubt the crook thought it safe enough to wear it. What an interesting book might be" written round Hatton Garden from the point of view of the jewel thief! What clever and adroit robberies have been committed—or planned—there. . Let me tel you of one or two which are not generally known. Dealers in precious stones are as plentiful as blackberries in the "Garden." They carry valuable consignments of precious stones about with them, usually in a >-'allet. With these as samples, as it were, they start out on a round of calls in different parts of the country. One very skilful and successful crook, only too well known to the police, conceived the idea of getting the wallet or—as it proved to be, the satchel—of one of these dealers. Selecting an occasion when he knew that the traveller was carrying an exceptionally valuable lot of stones, he followed him into the country, "shadowing" him, waiting all the time for a chance to get his bag. At last came an opportunity, or what he considered to be one. At a certain hotel, the owner of the bag left it in his bedroom while he went down to the bar. The crook saw him, slipped into the bedroom, and annexed the bag. ; He would have made his getaway all right had it not' been for' a curious little accident. The traveller had promised to bring the barmaid at this hotel a ring (a cheap one, 10 doubt) as a present. He suddenly remembered this, and went up to fetch it, getting to the door of his room just as the crook emerged, carrying his bag in his hand. The thief was a desperate man, and used to emergencies. Keeping tight hold of the bag, he deliberately vaulted over the banisters into the "well" of the staircase below! But he was caught and eventually went "inside" for a period. It is not easy to dispose of stolen jewellery. But sometimes it is done by "private treaty," as it were. I recently witnessed the following incident. Three ■ crooks entered a public-

house, and one of them, calling the landlord to him, held out a closed hand and said in a low'voice: "Give me ten pounds." LOOT CHANGES HANDS. The landlord: protested I;hat he did I not want the thing, but the crook persisted and at last the other man took it. I saw what had changed hands.. It was a valuable gold bracelet, studded with gems, and worth probably about £40 or £50. The t.n pounds, were handed over and promptly divided among the three crooks. i knew the landlord, so I' called him on one side and-: warned him that he ■ ~ doing a dangerous thing, He did not realise that, he was "receiving" stolen property. One form of jewel theft is known as "substitution." That is to say, by means of a little sleight of hand, a worthless article is neatly substituted for the genuine one. It may be done at a shop, or at a private house, or a hotel, the jeweller having been induced to send "samples" for inspection with a view to a purchas... But there has not been a case of the kind for some considerable time, a fact which may be attributable to the greater care and caution .now exercised by jewellers. And the • cruder method of lying in wait* for the jeweller's representative and then attacking him seems to have been abandoned altogether. , ■ . • The elaborate dogging of jeweller's travellers, as "already described, has had many variations. One of these took the form of substitution. The man was "trailed" by three crooks, who travelled in the same train with him, but in different parts of it. They had a bag similar to the one carried by the traveller, which he had placed on the rack above him. These thieves had carefully studied his usual movements. At one stoppingplace he got out of the carriage for a few moments to go to the refresh-ment-room. When he arrived at the end of his journey and took up what he believed to be Ms own bag, he was astounded to find that it contained, not jewellery, but a couple of fire-bricks! The loss amounted to some thousands of pounds. ■■•..'; ■ ~