N.Z. CAMP ROBBERY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22200, 10 December 1946, Page 5

N.Z. CAMP ROBBERY

OFFICERS’ LOSSES

£IOO IN CLOTHES & GEAR

JAPANESE SUSPECTED (Official N. Z. Correspondent With J-l'orce) (9 a.m.) YAMAGUCHI, Dec. 9. Thieves, suspected to be Japanese broke into the junior officers’ quarters at the 27th battalian camp at Yamaguchi early on Wednesday morning and stole large quantities of clothing and personal gear. They escaped without waking any of the five officers whose rooms they entered. Provost and military police were sent out on road patrol to check on all Japanese carts and motor vehicles as soon as the theft was reported, but no arrests have so far been made. Variety of Articles Taken The stolen gear, valued at more than £1p)0 included battledress, greatcoats, raincoats, service dress, suitcases, travelling bags, shoes, seaboots, summer clothing, underwear and one furlined jacket. Clothing was also removed from a dressingroom neaiby. Some money and at least one watch and one fountain pen were taken, but service revolvers and binoculars were not touched. A paybook and personal papers were removed. from one stolen battledress and placed neatly on the tallboy. So extensive were the thefts that several officers had to borrow clothes to dress themselves. It is obvious that the thieves knew the layout of the rooms and furniture for the only room not entered on tile ground floor of the officers’ quarters was one that opened only with loud squeaking Moreover, to remove some of the clothing it was necessary to lean over the officers in their beds. Sleepers Not Wakened

No suspicious noise was heard during the night. The theft took place some lime between midnight and 6 a.m. The heaviest loser was Second-Lieut. ,T. W. Maybank, of Blenheim, who lost four travelling bags and a suitcase, nearly all his army clothing and property which he had bought when he came to Japan. He estimated the vaiue of these articles at more than £SO. The raided quarters could have been approached by anyone clearing a ditch and climbing a brush fence as they are near the rear boundary of the camp.