THIEF IN A TRUNK

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 April 1924, Page 6

THIEF IN A TRUNK

ROBBERIES ON RAILWAY.

German police have captured a particularly clever scoundrel, who has been responsible for thefts' on the railways during the past year or two. He is Ernst Wegener, originally

a Berlin trunk maker, who got tired .of honest work and turned his handicraft to good account in a short and

lucrative career of crime.

Wegener constructed a large trunk wonderfully arranged inside. There was ample room in it for a man to recline comfortably, ventilation and light arrangements were perfect. There was a larder, which could carry food and drink for three days. In addition, there was plenty of room for booty. Wegener had an accomplice, a man named Schlonies. This man’s job was to go in the trunk when it was sent from one station to another—sometimes by passenger, sometimes by goods train. When the train was on the way Schlonies, who could open any side of the trunk from the inside, would come out of his hiding place and pack into the trunk all that he could get into it.

He also carried labels, each with one of Wegener’s “business” addresses, and with these he would change the address of any piece of luggage which he could not put into the trunk.

In this way large quantities of valuable merchandise and other things came into Wegener’s hands, and he soon became a wealthy man. In Berlin and Gera, where he generally lived, he was well known as a man who always had plenty of money to spend.

He was arrested at Gera station by a policeman whose suspicions were aroused by seeing a well-dressed man carrying a roll of cloth. When the policeman asked him if the cloth was his Wegener dropped his bundle and fled. He was caught, however, and detained so that the police might solve the mystery of the ownership of the cloth.

While in prison Wegener wrote a letter to be smuggled to his accomplice suggesting a plan of escape from goal.

This letter fell into the hands of the police, and led to the establishment of Wegener’s identity and to the discovery of his crimes.