IN LOVER’S HAUNT

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 3

IN LOVER’S HAUNT

THIEF STEALS 300 BAGS. SYDNEY, August 25. In the person of a man they arrested after a thrilling and sensational chase at Manly this week, the police believe they have the mystery man responsible for the theft of at least 300 ladies’ handbags in the space of two years. This huge number of thefts has been committed in a. comparatively small area at Fairy Bower, Manly, a most popular resort of lovers, the bags being stolen from the grass at the side of the couples. Of that number, only a percentage were reported to the police as stolen, but their attention was drawn forcibly to the extent of the thieving by the discovery, six weeks ago, of 182 rifled handbags hidden in a cleft of rock in. one of the more inaccessible portions of undergrowth in places. Detectives visited the place at week-ends, and though they gave chase to a suspect on several occasions they found that he knew the tracks so well that he could outdistance them without trouble, apparently melting into the bush and disappearing. It was then decided to set a trap, and the bait was in the person of one of the detectives, dressed in woman’s clothes, who left a handbag a few feet away from where he was apparently engaged in a passionate love affair with another detective. Within half an hour, two other detectives, secreted nearby for hours beforehand, saw a man approaching, wriggling along on his stomach. He circled the recumbent couple twice, satisfied himself that they were too engrossed to see him, and then took the bag, retreating as he had come. As he straightened up he was confronted by the two detectives who. had been in hiding. Without hesitation he leapt a 20ft. precipice and started off for safety. He tried to return towards Manly, but was cut off by the decoy “woman.” Doubling in his tracks, he made for the extreme end of the peninsula, where the four police ran him to earth in the centre of a patch of scrub. Even then he’ put a terrific fight, small saplings and undergrowth being smashed down before the police could get the handcuffs on his wrists. They found -that he was dressed in a brown sweater, brown trousers, and brown sandshoes, and wearing a brown cap —an outfit which made him almost indistinguishable in the darkness. He carried a torch specially fitted with a brown paper funnel which kept the light to a small compass. At his home they found articles of jewellery and other incriminating exhibits which form the subject of many charges against the man arrested. The chase and. arrest caused , a commotion at Fairy Bower, and soon after it started a general exodus of couples commenced. By the time the police got their man the place was quite deserted.