REMARKABLE ROBBERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18087, 11 May 1922, Page 9

REMARKABLE ROBBERY.

BOY WITH LARGE DIAMOND.

EXCHANGED FOR REVOLVER

CHANCE DISCOVERY BY POLICE. [from our own correspondent.] • SYDNEY, May 3. A remarkable robbery case, in which an £800 diamond changed hands between newsboys for a revolver and a/ shilling has just occurred in Hobart. A detective chanced to be in a city jeweller's shop, when a youth of about 14 walked in, produced a brilliant stone, and asked the jeweller its value. Examining it, the joweller found that it was a diamond weighing 3J carats and worth about £800. The detective asked the lad how ho came to have such a precious stone, and be replied that about three years ago he secured it from a sailor on a steamer for one shilling and a pistol, and had also received a couplo of smaller Htones into the bargain. On being further questioned the youth admitted getting the etone from another boy in the city in exchange for a revolver and a shilling. Ho further mentioned that he had shown the stone to a man outside the Palace Theatre after he had bought it, and the man, after examining it, said, " If that is a diamond, mv boy, it is worth £1000," and returned it to the lad. Upon his return home later in the evening he showed the diamond to his father, and asked him if it was real. His father, after looking at it under tho light, replied that it was only a piece of glass. The boy on his usual rounds selling newspapers went on board the steamer Riverina and exhibited the precious stono to some of the firemen, but appa.rently they did not realise that they were handling a fortune. One of them offered him a penny for it, but on tho advice of another he took it to a jeweller in order to have it valued, as already related. The youth who had disposed of the stone for a revolver and a shilling was run to earth. On his person was found a gold ring, set with another diamond valued at about £25, a gold brooch without a stono, and a gold safety chain. In a notebook in his pocket was found the following memorandum, purporting to have come from his mother; "I am sending up my old brooch, and I want you to sell it." When nucstioned, the youth admitted tho possession of the larger diamond, and said that, he found it, with other articles on his person, in the Domain, but had disposed of it to another boy the previous evening. He had taken the diamond out of a gold brooch and was going to sell the latter as old gold. The detectives doubted his story, and after further questioning, the laid admitted taking the articles from a residence at North Hobart last Wednesday. He said that he went to the door of the house on business, and the inmates failing to reply when he rang the bell six or seven times he opened the door, entered the bedroom and took the brooch and ring from a drawer. The occupier of the house was comnvtmicated with by the police, and when asked whether he had missed any jewellery, he said he had not. Later, however, in an agitated state he reported that a most valuable brooch and rinsr were gone. Needless to add he was still more excited and relieved when informed that the -police had recovered the missing property. The youth is under arrest, and will be brought before the Children's Court.