GENTLEMAN BURGLAR'S SMART CLIENTELE

Evening Star, Issue 17923, 20 March 1922, Page 7

GENTLEMAN BURGLAR'S SMART CLIENTELE

A TAME SURRENDER. Onco a gentleman burglar always a gentleman burglar, and see that you are in ' Who's Who.' This is the motto of Surgo cle Lena, who aftor winning a " mention " on the field of glory Teturnod to his profession when tho war was ovw ana fell into tho hands of the police (says a recent Paris message). Tho circumstances of his _ capture must seem distressingly puorilo to an old hand, but none—not even RafP.es or liis Drench counterpart Arsene Lupin—is perfect except in a novel. Mine Bastien, looking forth from her "logo" in tho aristocratic Avenue Henri Martin just after lunch, espied a gentleman coming downstairs with a small leather valiso in his hand. Ho was limping. " Might I ask what is tho matter?" she inquired. _ "Oh, it's nothing. I slipped," tho visitor replied with a certain embarrassment, and hurried on. Tho concierge, truo to her calling, was seized with suspicion. She called a policeman, who asked the young man whore he had come from. '" Done-in," was the reply. " Take toy bag." At tho police station the gentleman burglar mado a clean breast of ,it. "My name," ho said to tho Commissioner," is Sorgo do Lena; I am twoutv-seven, and I livo with my parents "in tho Boulevard Bineau at Nouilly. I am a ' high-lifo ' burglar." The Police Commissioner opened the bag and found two salt-cellars and six spoons, all of solid silver. "It is my custom," explained the burglar, "to consult the Bottin Mondain (the French ' Who's Who ') we ourselves are in it—and to note down the addresses of wealthy people. I saunter past their dwellings, and, if the shutters are up, I conclude that they are away. I must tell you that I prefer the fifth floor. You aro safe from surprises, as servants seldom go up to the sixth floor in tho day time. I generally operate between noon and half-past one. Before to-day I never met a concierge between those hours. Nobody ever questioned mo." _ •■ Lenz has confessed to being the author of most of the recent Paris burglaries at tho houses of the Comtesse do Sainfr-AJary, Marquiso de Crpis,

Comto de Chevigne, Mine. Boutroux, Vicomtosso do Barbot, Genoral Baron Kirkpatrick do Closcbam, and many others. The police seized a portion of tho stolen property at his rooms. He passed many valuable articles to receivers, who,' he said, wore in the habit of Riving him IOOf, for what was worth 10,000 f. Ho has revealed their names to tho police. The amount of his burglaries is estimated at 2,000,000 f (£40,000). Lena's family are highly respectable people. His octogenarian "father was for many years on the Bourse. Serge was believed by his relatives to be a motor car broker. He had already been sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but benefited by the amnesty. Serge do Lenz is tall and distinguished in appearance. Ho is said to have borne himself bravely during tho war, and to have earned a citation, more or less equivalent to our "mentioned in dispatches."