MOTOR BANDIT CHASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

MOTOR BANDIT CHASE.

THRILLS IN LONDON STREET. EXCITING HUE AND CEY. JEWELS ABANDONED IN CAR. Hundreds of women in Brompton Road, one of the busiest shopping' centres in the West End of London, were thrilled one morning lately by a 40-mile-an-hour niotor bandit ch?se, in which private motorists, taxicabs, police, cyclists and pedestrians joined. About 10 o'clock a coupe car containing two or three men stopped near a jewellery shop in Brompton Road, where assistants were busy dressing the window. One of the motorists sauntered into the shop and, as an assistant went forward to serve him, snatched up a tray of jewellery, valued at about £4OOO, and rushed out. Stumbling a few yards from the shop, the man was nearly caught by the pursuing assistant, who missed his coat by

an inch or two, bandit quickly recovered his ice, Lwvvever, and, picking up a valuaUt pearl necklace he had dropped, threw the trrv 1 "'o the car, jumped in, and was tl.. : .1. off down Brompton Road at 40 miles an hour. 7 Amid shrill blasts from police whistles, dozens of people, shouting, *" Stop thief," ran after the bandit car, and taxicabs and private cars took up the chase. A policeman on point duty jumped on to one car. Other policemen boarded a delivery van, and pursued the fugitives into Sloane Avenue.

Here, as the bandits' car had to slow down in consequence of a traffic jam, the van drew level and tried to cut off escape. But the bandits' car scraped through with a few inches tp spare, and the van a few yards behind it. Then the driver of the fleeing car applied the brakes, and before the car had stopped the bandits had jumped out and disappeared up a side turning. Most, of the stolen jewellery, including rings, brooches, ear-rings and necklaces, was found littered on the floor of the car. Less than £IOO worth of jewels was missing, but among these was a sapphire and diamond cluster ring, a diamond and pearl drop ear-ring, and a diamond, emerald and sapphire peacock feather brooch.