THIEF APOLOGISED

Evening Star, Issue 23865, 21 April 1941, Page 8

THIEF APOLOGISED

WATCH AND WALLET RETURNED EY POST Burglars and pickpockets rarely have much discrimination in choosing their victims. All too often the size of the swag is all that matters, but I must put on record an incident which concerned a well-known K.C. who has gained a big reputation as a defending counsel (writes a correspondent of ‘ Answers,’ London). A pickpocket, not guessing the identity of his victim, robbed him of his watch and wallet. The day after the newspapers reported the incident the K.C. had his property returned to him by registered post, accompanied by a note of.apology from the crook! Some of my readers may recall the Liverpool bank forgery case, in which a clerk forged a client’s signature to the tune of £160,000. A gang of toughs robbed him of the proceeds. They included a pugilist, who was sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude. It was a heavy sentence, some people thought, but tbe criminal did not appear to nurse hard feelings. Years later judge and ex-convict met in tbe steam room of a Turkish bath. His lordship looked very slight beside the hulking figure of the man he had sentenced. Nobody else was in the room, and it would have been easy for the pugilist to “ cosh ” the judge, or at least give him an earful of choice Billingsgate. Instead, he introduced himself politely to Lord Mersey, and they talked quite pleasantly together for a few minutes.

If memory serves me the same man served in the Boxers’ Battalion throughout the Great War and distinguished himself for bravery. If crooks are capable of generosity, let us not forget that most detectives are also good sportsmen. I remember a 0.1. D.. man who heard that the wife and family of a burglar he had caught wore in desperate need. Time and again he paid their doctor’s bills and generally acted as fairy godfather to the little household until the man came out of prison. The burglar has reformed and now has his own little shop. The detective who sent him to penal servitude is one of his best customers. Only the other day I heard of another ease. A detective acted as best man at the wedding of a man whom be had once arrested.