PIGEONS AND BLACKMAIL

Evening Star, Issue 21810, 28 August 1934, Page 3

PIGEONS AND BLACKMAIL

OUTWITTING A SCOUNDREL FLIGHTS PLOTTED ON MAP. A criminal in Milan, Italy, has devised a new Avay of extorting blackmail. To keep his identity from his victims he had been sending his_ blackmailing demands by homing pigeons. His last would-be victim, however, outwitted him by the intelligent use of a compass. , . ■■ One day a Milan shopkeeper received a parcel Avhicli, to his surprise, contained a box with a carrier pigeon in it, together with a note saying that it five banknotes of 5,000 lire each were not fastened to the pigeon’s legs and the bird released the shop would be bombarded Avith gas bombs. . When the given tunc limit had expired an unknoAvn malefactor threw* a tear-gas bomb into the shop when it was croAvded, causing consternation almost amounting to panic. A watch Avas set, hoAA’ever, and a man was ultimately arrested Avhen about to .throAV other bombs. . . MeaiiAvhile, under police supervision, the pigeon Avas released—Avithout the banknotes—some distance away from the shop and its line of flight noted by compass. A second Avarning and demand for more money then came in a box complete with pigeon. This was released at another point away from the shop. , i The two lines of flight were plotted on a map of Milan and a search made at the point where the lines intersectedThere the police discovered the biack mailer and his secret pigeon loft. He has now* joined his bomb-throAving confederate in gaol.