KING OF CAT BURGLARS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 July 1928, Page 8

KING OF CAT BURGLARS

' “CROWN AND ANCHOR” EXPERT. i f A man with two Royal titles, was sentenced to three months’ hard labour in a jCourt in Kent .a few weeks ago. The titles are unofficial, but there seems little doubt as to their authenticity. The police say that Arthur Sherwood has every right to be called the “King of Cat Burglargs.” Sherwood before being sentenced (“with loitering with intent to commit a felony”) proudly proclaimed that he was known as the “Crown and Anchor King of the British Army.” His war profits, he said, in that capacity were £lB,OOO. No former soldier patron of “the lucky old mudhook” or other symbol of fortune featured in the British Army’s favourite gambling game has written to dispute this claim, nor have rival crown and anchor experts arisen to question it. It may therefore be taken for. granted, and we may also accept “the £lB,OOO profits” statement without flinching. The crown and anchor men were among the most successful scavengers in the Great War. Call them “war profiteers” if you like, but remember when you hurl that hateful term of reproach that many piled thenprofiteering trade in the firing line and not behind it, and that their victime were willing ones. Detective-In-spector Wood, of the “Flying ,Squad,” in evidence, said Sherwood’s convictions included one for violating prison regulations and another for escaping from prison in South Africa. “There is no doubt,” added the detective, “that Sherwood is the cleverest ‘cat’ burglar in the kingdom to-day. There is no one else to touch him for that sort of crime. He is known, and properly known, as the ‘king of cat burglars.’ ” Sherwood told the Court that he had served in the Boer War after leaving home because his father was cruel to him. He then mixed with a cosmopolitan crowd. Sherwood added that he had served during the war on three different fronts.