BURGLARS' HUMOR

Evening Star, Issue 19774, 26 January 1928, Page 12

BURGLARS' HUMOR

CHEEK AND A CHEQUE BOOK. Because of memories it evoked 1 smiled when I read the other day that thieves who stole a number of wedding presents and the bride’s trousseau from a car in Regent Street, had returned an autograph album and a book of poems, and in the latter had written a message wishing the bride happiness and better luck in the future, writes an English ox-police inspectoi. A combination of impudence and humor! Here are some similar instances of which I had personal experience. Among other things looted from a Hat was a cheque-book. It was returned by post the next day, with the blank cheques filled in and a note requesting that they should be signed and sent off. mere is tno list: Burglars Benevolent Institution, £1000; Burglars’ Home of Rest, £1000; Convicted Burglars’ Prison Luxuries Fund, £1 Is. ; Burglars’ Tool Renewal and Repair Society, £500; and—l grinned at this —Mental Home for Afflicted . Police, £IO,OOO . , . . There was a time when _ burglars were rather fond of creeping _ into bedrooms and annexing the suits oi sleeping householders. They were after the note-cases and cash left in the pockets. Some good hauls were made in tins wnv. One man, whose suit had been “lifted” received it hack two days later, with the postage unpaid. Pinned to it was a nolo from Hie disgruntled burglar: “Yon don’t, want emphasise his point he had slashed them all out, because the man’s habit was to empty Ins pockets at night, and the burglar had his trouble for nothing. A diary was taken from another house and returned with some amusing entries: — '“Wednesday. Went to bed at 11. Slept like a hog, and snored like a P '“’ Thursday. Woke at usual time. Couldn’t hear watch going. Investigated and found it gone. Also links, wallets, studs, and other things. Burglar must have called. “ Friday. (Carry on here yourself. Ta ta! Your stuff was jolly good.”) Two burglars, after riding a house, went into the kitchen and had a good time with port and champagne. The next dav they returned the corkscrew they had used “Sorry this was took away by accident.” said the note accompanying it. Strange, considering the thieves had made a £SOO haul. The best “ return n 1 know of occur, red during a recent influenza epidemic. A woman Inst her husband and two children within three days, and then had her house burgled. The burglar, having read about it in the papers, returned everything he had taken. In the parrel oi jewellery was a piece of paper scrawled with the word “ Sorry.” Burglars—some of them—are human. A “return” revealed a burglary when a crook sent back the key of a safe to the owner. The latter, until Hie key came, had no idea that the safe had been opened and cleared. Some “returns” are mysterious. Why, for instance, was a suit posted to its owner with every , button," twenty-six, I believe, resewn in another place?