MAKE-BELIEVE BURGLAR.

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1914, Page 6

MAKE-BELIEVE BURGLAR.

1 Alf creel Voss a detective formerly attached to tlie Berlin police department, was placed on trial ini the Criminal Court on December 5 on a charge of bribing twd men to commit a "burglary" in his flat- in order to attract the attention of his superiors to his professional merits. One of these men, named' Hesse, who is also on trial, told how a mam named Ponkowski, oncci a police spy, induced him to join in the alleged make-believe burglary. If all went well, Ponkowski 1 alleged, there would be a "reward" of £IOO. When the "burglars" reached' thle flat, Hesse said, the entrance to the building was locked. Ponkowski raj* to the back and rapped at the detective's bedroom window. They entered, and a few minutes later, while ransacking the flat, the detective shouted, "Hands up!" and then fired, hitting Hesse half a dozen times. Ponkowski "escaped." The next d!ay Vosa paid him £4 on account. The detective denied these allegar tionß. Voss was sentecned to two years' imprisonment and Hesse to one year.