ROBBERY IN A BANK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12260, 2 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROBBERY IN A BANK.

THIEF ESCAPES THROUGH A WRONG ARREST.

A particularly audacious robbery, by which the thief got clear away with £330 in notes, was perpetrated at the Birkbeek Bank in Chancery Lane just before four o'clock the other afternoon. The unfortunate owner, a gentleman, was seated inside at one of the benches engaged in filling in a deposit form when a well-dressed stranger momentarily distracted his attention by exclaiming, pointing to the floor. "Look! who's dropped all that gold?" Taken off his guard, he turned in the direction indicated, and at the same moment the stranger darted behind him, snatched up the roll of banknotes which he had placed beside him while writing, and vanished through the folding doors into the street like a flash. So astonished was everybody at the suddenness and daring of the theft that some seconds elapsed before the alarm was raised. A clerk who had caught a glimpse of the flying thief, leapt the counter and rushed after him. But before he had gone many yards towards Holborn he was seized in mistake for the robber by some passers, who heard the cries of " Slop thief!" This stroke of luck favoured the thief's escape, and, although many policemen-and commissionaires rushed tip and down Holborn and Chancery Lane for some time afterwards no arrests were marie. The numbers of the banknotes are not known, and there is little or no clue to the robbers' identity