FAMOUS JEWEL THEFTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 7 January 1920, Page 3

FAMOUS JEWEL THEFTS

£60,000 IN ONE HAUL

There have been many mysterious thefts of precious stones in tiie past, and often the criminals have not been brought to book.

Now and again th c highfliers in crime who engineer these gigantic jewel robberies are caught; but it is rare, indeed, for the gems to be recovered. In March of last year £50,000 worth of precious stones disappeared while in transit from London to Bombay \ reward of £500 failed to bring any clue, which is not surprising, considering its madequateness, and the affair remains a mystery to this day. Th c assumption is that both robberies were committed by thieves who booked their passage on the steamers conveying the gems, and probably by the same gang. A big robbery of the kind that for a while completely puzzled the police was perpetrated in May, 1916, at Birmingham. A leather case containing £8000 woftn of jewellery, was deposited in the cloakroom at New Street railway station. It was safe when th e room wan locked up at midnight, but next; moming it had disappeared.

In the end the mystery was partially solved owing to certain information coming to the ears of the police, which convinced them that the robbery had hsen perpetrated by a thief who was deposited in the cloak room, concealed m a box, by a confederate. This box was fitted with a eliding panel, such as conjurors make vs c of, and whack could be opened by the person inskie. Once th e room was closed for the night it was, of course, easy for the man concealed within to unlock the panel from the inside, slide it back, and emerge, return to his hiding place with his booty as soon as his nefarious work was done. Next morning the box was called for, and taken away by a confederate. POST OFFICE COOP. One of the most carefully-planned jewel thefts of modern times was that known as the Hatton Garden Post Office robbery, when rough diamonds valued at about £25,000 were stolen. Various theories are current concerning this mysterious affair, one account crediting the coup to the notorius Adam Worth— tile man who sto] e the £10,000 Gainsborough picture—while another says that the job was done by a criminal known as "Flash Ned/ in conjunction with his wife, who disguised herself as a telegraph messenger. The facts of the robbery were fairly simple. One foggy November evening, when the weekly registered mail for mail," was being made up, the gas was Amsterdam, known as the "diamond suddenly turned off at the meter. When lights were procured the mailbag containing the diamonds had' vanished. I None of them were recovered, nor were I the thieves ever traced, i £60,000 HOME. ! A mystery within a mystery surrounds I j th c theft of the Crown jewels from Dub- ; lin Castle early in 1008. Elaborate pvecautlons were taken to safeguard the jewels, guards being on duty night and day outside the apartment where was j kept the safe in which they were stored, j Nevertheless, the safe was opened and rifled, .presumably by means of a dupiij cate key, and its valuable contents abstracted. The jewels were valued at £60,000. and none of them were recovered ; nor was the thief ever arrested, although many sensational rumors were current at the time as to his identity. Mrs -Langtry. when at the height of her popularity as an actress, was rdbbe-d of the whole of her immensely valuable collection of jewellery by means of a trick. A man presented at her banker's a forged order for their delivery, walked : away with them in a b"ox under his arm, and was never seen or heard: of again. In December, 1881, jewellery to the lvalue of £60,000 was'stolen from Lord ' Hill Trevor's seat near Chirk, North Wales.