FAMOUS DIAMOND ROBBERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

FAMOUS DIAMOND ROBBERIES.

DrAMON'i>s, thanks in the facility with which they can be pocketed, and the comparative each with which they can be disposed of, may be said to represent, an ideal property to the depredator, and the Hat ton Garden district, as the centre of London's trade in precious stones, has a long history of thefts. One of the biggest hauls was in 1876. when diamonds and other jewels of a value of £25.000 were stolen from the premises of Messrs. Williams- and Sons. This was a case of a Saturday to Monday robbery, when thieves wort at their leisure. In this instance they had managed to get false keys, made from moulds, which opened all the sales. -Another very successful enterprise was in 1381, when Katton Garden Post, Office was the scene of a mail robbery of an unexampled character.

One November day. shortly after dusk, when the work of making up the bags was just completed, someone turned the gas off at. the meter, ami in the confusion the thieves, who evidently knew their way about, entered by a side door behind the counter and made straight for I he registered letter bugs, which were hanging on hooks ready for despatch. A light cart or other vehicle was waiting at the dour, and into this the robbers threw their booty and quickly drove away. The bags contained diamonds, out and uncut, of a value of £30,000. The oddest thing of all was that nobody saw the carrying off of the bags, which were too bulky for one man, and that nobody observed a cart at the door. Some arrests were made by the Continental police, but the real criminals were never discovered. Sometimes these robberies are accompanied by violence. Thus iu 1883 Mr. J. Alexander, a diamond merchant in Hatton Garden, made complaint to the police (hat be had been shot through the right hand by a thief who had entered his office and stolen a. purse of diamonds valued at some thousands of pounds. The miscreant, it was added, rushed out of the building, jumped into a- hansom cab, and escaped before an alarm could be given. A year later two foreigners ware inspecting precious stones at the premises of Mr. Tabak, a Loudon diamond merchant, when they suddenly attacked him with a life-preserver, and got off with £2000 worth of his valuable wares. The latest crime of a kindred description occurred in 1894, when Mr. Spvers, a Dutch merchant, was overpowered by chloroform at Hat ton Garden, and robbed of diamonds and other jewels worth several thousand pounds. In this instance rooms had been opened by persons who gave themselves out as large purchasers for the Continental market. Mr. Spyers called on them in the way of business, and was promptly maltreated and deprived of his pocket-book. There was suspicion at the time, whether well-founded or otherwise, that this was the work of the gang who robbed the Hatton Garden Post Office. In that case they took rooms next door, and had a registered letter delivered to them every day. As they came first on the postman's rounds they knew the size of the registered letter bag. and doubtless got hold of" other information which they' .subsequently put to good account.