£7000 DIAMOND STOLEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 April 1933, Page 8

£7000 DIAMOND STOLEN

DARING DAYLIGHT RAID. LONDON, February 18. Scores of -people in Duke-street, St. James’s, yesterday morning witnessed an amazing smash and grab robbery of a famous diamond ring worth £7OOO. A man walked down the street, smashed one of the windows of the premises of Messrs. James R. Ogden and Sons Lt., jewellers, with a brick wrapped in brown paper. He thrust a hook between the bars of a steel grille, and fished out the ring, which was glistening on a small pad amidst other jewels of the total value of £35,000. 1 Then the raider ran across the pavement to a moving motor-car, into which he was assisted by a second man, while a third confederate, the driver, raced the car into King-street. It drove on into St. James’s-square, where it was lost to view. One man flung a suitcase at the actual thief, but missed him. Several men in a garage opposite saw the robbery, but they were unable to stop the thieves. A Flying Squad car, summoned by wireless, arrived in Duke-street only three minutes later. It gave chase, but the fugitives were too elusive for the detectives. The robbery was carefully planned and carried out by experts, whose object was to secure the one diamond ring. It is a specimen blue-white diamond cut like an emerald, and flawless.

Formerly it belonged to an Eastern potentate. It was sold to an American millionaire, who some weeks ago sent it to Messrs. Ogden and asked them to sell it for £7OOO. Near it on the same shelf were displayed other gems—a black pearl ring, worth £6OOO, a diamond braclet worth £4OOO, and other costly treasures. “The ring is so well known all over the world,” said Mr., Ogden to a representative of “The Daily Telegraph,” that the thieves will find it very difficult to sell it. The police have already sent a description of it to the Continent, because it is possible that one of the thieves caught the eleven o’clock boat train from Victoria. The stone weighs 10.60 carats, and there are very few of that size in the country. Mr. James Ogden is the brother of rM. William Ogden, whose premises in King-street were recently visited by thieves, who unsuccessfully plotted the burning open of a safe containing £lOO,OOO worth of jewels.