BIG ROBBERY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1186, 8 December 1924, Page 12

BIG ROBBERY

£BOO IN CHEQUES AND NOTES. SYDNEY, Nov. 22. A safe at the residence of John Gates, caretaker of stables of Grace Brothers, Ltd., Ross street, Forest Lodge, was opened early last night, and about £7OO in notes and cheques valued at £IOO were stolen. The robbery was reported to the police about 11 o’clock. Detective-Ser-geant Thornloy, Sergeant (wireless night patrol), ■ and Constables Plumb and Gallivan (Glebe), took charge of the inquiry, and later Do-tective-Sergeant Barclay and Detective Clarke questioned members of Mr Gates’s household, but they could obtain no clue on which to work. The story told to the police by Miss Vera Gates, daughter of the caretaker, who discovered the robbeiy, was that on returning home about 1 o’clock she found the safe open, and the money missing. The thieves had, however, missed about £SOO, which had also been placed in the safe. KEY UNDER A PILLOW. As is customary, every day, carters, on arrival at the stables, after making their collections, hand over their money to Mr Gates, who places it in a safe in one of the bedrooms at his residence near the stables. His wife, daughter, and two sons also live in the house. According to tho information given to tho police, Miss Gatos placed tho money in about 20 bags, and locked the lot in the safe. She put the key under a pillow on a bed in the room. Subsequently she left the house, and not long after her departure her brothers. Frederick and Arthur, who had arrived before she went out, left the house, with only Airs Gatos at home. No strangers were seen about the place. The police have been informed that the key was found in tho safe by Miss Gates on her arrival home about 10 o’clock. She reported the matter to her father on his reaching homo, and he communicated with tho Glebe police. Shortly after the report of the robbeiy was received by the police a man walked into the station with the cheques, which, ho stated, he found in University Park, close to the house. Tho police aro hopeful of making an arrest. The recovery of the money is, however, doubtful.