THE SYDNEY BANK BURGLARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13296, 1 October 1906, Page 6

THE SYDNEY BANK BURGLARY.

THE THIEVES' INGENUITY. DETAILS BY MAIL. It is doubtful whether a more audacious and ingenious attempt to rob a bank has ever been made than that discovered on September 24 at the Pitt and Park Streets branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. The bank does not employ a resident caretaker, so the robbers were given a pretty free hand while in possession. When the cleaner— Chaffersarrived on the premises shortly before halfpast six o'clock on Monday morning, September 24, he noticed that several articles of furniture had been disturbed, while one of the doors, which is usually closed, was quite ajar. He immediately communicated with the manager, Mr. E. J. Maplestone, of Rose Bay. That gentleman put in an appearance some few minutes afterwards, and a hasty examination disclosed that the bank's valuables were all intact. The premises were ' securely locked at about halfpast five o'clock on Saturday evening, the last person to leave the building being the cleaner. - i The bank is a one-storey structure, and, save for a small lavatory, it has no yard accommodation. The intruders got as far as the lavatory without much apparent difficulty, and it was then that their inventive genius was brbught into play. They were faced with the problem of removing at least one stout iron bar . before they could enter the : banking chamber. In order to accomplish. this feat the thieves hit upon an entirely novel and at the same time exceedingly clever plan. They resolved to utilise electricity, and, in order to obtaiA, the necessary current, attached a wire'and two carbons to the electric lighting appliances in the vicinity. The iron bar was then burned through, and twisted so as to enable a man to enter a small room used for the storage of vouchers. A door having been opened, the robbers were in the banking chamber itself. HOLE BURNED IN SAFE. Electricity was then brought into play with the object of fusing the safe door, but the current was evidently not of sufficient volume to complete the job. A hole was burned between two locks to within a fraction of an inch of the interior. The robbers were seemingly conversant with the uses of electricity, but they confined their operations to the wrong portion of the safe, as had they made a. cavity right through it would not have enabled them to get at the contents. Being confronted with the hopelessness of their task the men do not appear to have made any further effort to getthe door open. They must have been 1 work- ' ing on the safe for fully three hours, as an electrician told the police that the hole could not have been burned through in less than that time. The utility of the safe was not interfered with, as it could bo I opened and shut, and was in every way as | efficient as it was before the attentions of ! the robbers were bestowed upon it., It is stated that there was very little money on the premises, it having been the custom of the manager to remove the bulk of the cash to another building prior to leaving the bank for the night. ' AN ERRATIC INDICATOR. As the business premises in the vicinity of the bank receive their supply of electric current for lighting purposes from Adams' - works in Pitt-street, inquiries were made there with a view to eliciting whether the men on duty noticed anything unusual between Saturday and Monday. One of the electricians stated that he did observe something cut of the ordinary, but did noti know the cause of it. The hand of the current meter was bobbing about in a most erratic way. Sometimes it would go up to as high as 250 volts, and then down almost to nothing. Ho formed an opinion that a motor was being used somewhere. It commenced "about half-past six on Sunday morning. It would be quiet for a while, and then t.he indicator would start bobbing a,bout again. It looked as though the load was being suddenly put on and off, and the engines could not be left unattended for an instant. Constant watch had to be kept on them. When he went off at mid-day, although things had quietened down somewhat, there was still some evidence of irregularity.