WINDOW SCRATCHING

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1929, Page 9

WINDOW SCRATCHING

DAMAGE IN WEST END. Abdut twenty shops in New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Street ano Shaftesbury Avenue were damaged on Friday night and early yesterday morning by the person with the diamondcutter who, oil Wednesday night, did such extensive damage to big shops in Knightsbridge. The police are at a loss to unctci - stand the motive for the outrages. The person responsible contents himself with scratching the windows in a horizontal line about three feet fiom the ground., This suggests that he does the damage as he walks along with the diamond cutter held by his side. x, , • The scratches are sufficiently deep m many cases to render- the replacement of the plate-glass windows necessary, because they are not strong enough to stand normal pressure. Several windows on the right hand side of New Oxford Street were scored and then, apparently, the man crossed the road to the south side and there did further mischief. Further along he crossed the road and weiit into Tottenham Court Road. Here, too, a number of windows had been slashed. The next trace of him was found in Hampstead Road, where several windows had been marked. In Tottenham. Court Road 126 windows were damaged, four in Gower Street, twenty-six in Oxford Street, four in Goodge Street, and eight in Holies Street. It was discovered yesterday that six windows had been damaged in a similar way in Lower Church Street, Croydon. All had been injured with a fine, sharp-pointed instrument, but th-e scratch'es were very faint.