INGENIOUS ROBBERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14157, 4 September 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

INGENIOUS ROBBERY.

TROUBLES OF HOUSEKEEPING IN PARIS.

Some queer facts, which ought to serve as a warning to strangers who start housekeeping in Paris, have come out at the trial of the person implicated in the assault and robbery of an American lady dwelling in the Avenue d'Eylau. To begin with, this lady had had a maidservant who was sentenced for robbing her to six months' imprisonment, just before she engaged the girl who has now figured with a couple of men in the dock. Then this girl had such a pleasant way with her that her mistress was led to trust her implicit!}-, a great mistake, as will presently be seen. The lady had inserted a notice in several newspapers of her intentions to sell her furniture, as she was returning to America.. One morning the maid entered her bed-room with the information that she had introduced into the salon two gentlemen who had called to view the furniture. The lady went there and spoke to them, requesting them to return at rive o'clock to discuss the price, as her daughters, who had gone out, would be back at that hour. Her horror may be imagined when at three o'clock one of these men dashed into her dressing-room, snatched a bag containing money from her belt, caught her by the throat, threw her down, struck her several times in the face, and then, pressing a cushion on it, tore from her hands four rings worth 10,000f. Where was the maid while this was going on? She did not appear in the dressing-room until long afterwards and then she related that she had had an awful adventure with the other man, who had tried to throttle her with her apron. Such was the deposition of her mistress in court, and the two men having previouslv made a full confession, one of them related to the magistrates that the girl, whose acquaintance he had made at a cinematograph show some, months before, had spoken to him of the American lady's Jewellery and had explained that it could easily be taken. She had arranged a signal with the curtains of the salon that he might know when her mistress was alone, and her daughters out. This plan was, however, changed and it was from the maid herself in the street that he learnt that day that the young ladies would be absent all the afternoon Such was his story, and he added that he had objected that her mistress would probably have all her jewellery on her by that time, whereupon she had'answered " Perhaps, but it will be easy for vou to take it, as she cannot make a noise'und is very weak." "All the same," he concluded, "I thought it better to take with me the other prisoner, as his trade allows him a good deal oi leisure. The two men have each been sentenced to four years' imprisonment, and the girl, who had been regarded as a model servant, has been condemned to three years of the same penalty.