Capture of Burglars.

Hastings Standard, Issue 108, 31 August 1896, Page 4

Capture of Burglars.

The Paris police have just succeeded in capturing a band of twenty-one burglars belonging to a much more numerous and extraordinarily wellorganised gang, whose chief is reported to be at present in America. They are credited with more than 200 burglaries in Paris, the provinces, and in Belgium, Of this number, three committed by them in 1893, one in 1894. and seven in 1895, brought them a Tovmd sum of 838,000 francs. In their operations they showed a marked preference for churches and presbyteries. Besides their supreme chief, the gang was directed by five other men, who indicated the burglaries which were to be committed, and selected and organised the men for the work. Four was the maximum number of men told off for each job, and, after every burglary, the men were changed. It took the police about a year to catch one of the crowd in jl'ujri-Kt,- but this captare ultimately led to the arrest of twenty-one of the number. It is simply the presence of a valuable ring on the finger of a quietly-dressed man that aroused the .suspicion of Detective Girodot, who from that moment, in various disguises and with unabating vigilance, succeeded in establishing the identity of every man in the band, and finalh m Lt\mg hands on them. The gang a huge collection of disguises and tools but to avoid suspic—ion the things were divided among all the members. They never used violence in their work. One of the burglars was arrested while directing the masons in the construction of a country house which he was erecting for himself.