PARIS MOTOR BANDITS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1933, Page 4

PARIS MOTOR BANDITS

A NEW .TRICK.

PARIS, December 27.

Despite police patrols, highway robbery is still not uncommon in some of the quieter streets of Paris. Five young highwaymen who are now on trial on charges of stealing motor-cars and robbery with violence are said to have invented something new in the technique of this kind of crime.

The prisoners, three of whom are only 18 years of age, have disclosed that their latest trick was to make use of the habit which concierges have of closing the main doors of a house at sunset. Noticing a woman walking along a quiet street, they drove a little way ahead of her and rang the bell for the concierge to open the door. As the woman approached them they snatched her purse and then pushed her through the open door, which they closed before they drove off. The woman remained the prisoner of ihe concierge for sufficiently long to allow the young motor highwaymen to make their escape. HARD LUCK. There is in a Paris prison awaiting trial a man who declares that he is fated to spend every Christmas and New Year’s Day in gaol. His name is Corbineau, and he is accused of having insulted a policeman on duty. In explaining matters to a magistrate, Corbineau said that the end of a year always seemed to bring him bad luck. Although he did his best to be an upright citizen, he invariably became involved in some kind of scrape near the end of December. At the beginning of this month he resolved that for the first time in ten years he would pass Christmas and the New Year as a free man. But fate was once more against him. He found himself the other day in a crowd and a. policeman pushing his way through, trod on a very tender corn. This was too much for Corbineau's good resolutions. He told ihe policeman in language more pungent than polite exactly what he thought of the incident, and was forthwith put under arrest.

When asked why he had used abusive language, he said that it was simply a questiton of reflex action, and asked the magistrate what he would say to a person who trod on one o£ his corns.

The bench refused to commit itself, and Corbineau was led away on remand over the turn of the year to a. place where the only form oi celebration in which lie can indulge is making good resolutions.

CH URCH OF FER ING S’ ADVENTU RE

It has just been revealed that the sacristan of the church of St. Mary, near St. Nazaire, is not likely to forget the Christinas Eve of 1932 for a long time.' That evening, as was his wont, he made a lour of the parishioners to collect their offering for the church. Tradition inspired them not only with generosity towards their cure, but also with hospitality towards his messenger.

When, therefore, long alter night had fallen the sacristan wended his way home, it was not merely the weight of a bagful of Christmas offerings that caused the good man to sway somewhat in his walk, and even sometimes to stumble, fall, and lose his hat. Yet all might have been well had •'■4 - c

not two stalwart gendarmes been on the lookout for a thief who, without a hat, was known to be tramping the country.

Through the semi-darkness they made out the silhouette of a hatless figure with “swag” over his arm. Dashing forward, they seized him firmly, and to plaintive protests that he was the sacristan of St. Mary’s, replied simply, “Tell us another.” Marched off to the police station, the sacristan had to spend the night there before his identity was confirmed. When set free, however, his liberty was short-lived. Another pair of gendarmes haled him back to the police station as the wanted malefactor. Not until they had been convinced of their mistake could the bedraggled sacristan pursue his way back to the church and make peace with his cure. THIEVES’ COOL IMPUDENCE. M. Uhry, a resident of Marseilles, ! has suffered one of the most impudent thefts of which he has ever heard, even in the city of tall stories. Driving out last night to visit friends in the Arene quarter, he stayed with them for about two hours. His car had been left at the door, but when he came out it had disappeared. After reporting his loss at the police station he set out sorrowful lj r to walk home. Hardly had he gone 400 yards when his car was driven up alongside him. As it stopped he was congratulating himself that its disappearance had probably only been due to a joke, when three men stepped out of it and robbed him of all in his pockets.