CYCLE STEALING

Evening Star, Issue 17429, 12 August 1920, Page 9

CYCLE STEALING

A NEW INDUSTRY. TLe-yisit of a Liverpool detective to Beland hia return'wiMi a cargo of 50 stolen is only, the picturesquo prelude to :“1 nhrarelhng "of a mysterv wliich has baffled the police for 12 months. It is suspected that the [wholesale theft ®lPles Liverpool and district is the . n 2. 0l: oao niau, but of a small gang gi thieves, and the police believe that their mqmnes, ■ when completed,-will show that enmes were organised with all the thoronghnees which is associated- with a. modem business and conducted with the regulari-tv or a lawtul vocation. For about a vear Oicyc.es, both of the motor 'and the “ push ” variety, have been disappearing with alarming frequency from the outside of shops and business premises, but, strangely enough, no race of ihe salo of the stolen machines Manchesd * ®Rher>. m'..lirerpo6l'' : ’bi| in ■ Recently, JiDwevSr, 4 which had been taken from outside business premises in Commutation row wae found three hours ater on a'vessel boiind 'for Ireland. Folj'WQ J atl arrest was effected, and the fruitful voyage of the deBelfast was undertaken. So far t-ifiod recovere fi' cycles have been ideu- . The inquiries, so far as thev have gone, said to ohow that the real thief or thieves traaed as a bona fide concern, possessing au i h , av ” i = headings on tbo aooounta which they rendered to on Whom they traded the stolen cycles. No suspicion of any land attaches to the agents Wei %Thp n led i! 1 good faith and were not- -waio of the character of the goods which they were handling. The simth° methods alleged to have been adopted by the thieves seems to have been +3-r safeguard. To mount an untenfied machine propped against the kerb pfiabusypavewent-waa the work of a moancl, a J oli niey direct to a steamer « matter of minutes only, IP ?? 1 P?hce knqw of 86 cases where ft S tWs and it is probable that others whoso anco has no*, pocn‘reported lave gone istrar ilv fo*c a T Way- Liverpool is not the only ;-7.J° !V%l r SB 7 er «ly from these sysleraatio bicj-cle-tlmfts,; but there is no evidence to show that the thefts are the work of the same organisation. Bicycles now fetch such ugh prices that the-’thieves apparently cSfif reward winch followed their suceassiql, raids wed worth the risk incurred i n „ a « a n s , e , afc W»Hasey recently, when a man -1° P nso “ /or six months for cycle ,fc a i S s . tatetl that ono of the machines was valued at £24. Even the police themselves are numbered amongst the, victims. Last 5 August aMew Triumph motor cycle belonging to° the county o ß r’ fdd€n - r °T Prcsion to Liverpool, ® ..I . minutes which it stood oat new W W paKed the hands of a never bf °^ aer - ' The bicycle has never been found. J