A GANG OF THIEVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21229, 8 July 1932, Page 12

A GANG OF THIEVES.

CRIMES IN CANTERBURY.

USE OF STOLEN CARS.

SYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS. A gang of thieves is apparently working on a definite system in Christchurch and the surrounding districts at the present time. Many charges of car converting could be preferred against these thieves, but their scope of operations does not end there. Usually tho cars are recovered, but frequently the recovery coincides with a report from the city or country that business premises have been broken into and robbed. If the theory held by the police is correct, the hauls of this gang up to the present time have' been fairly valuable—somewhere in the region of £2so—though several attempts on premises have proved failures. Cars havo not been used in every case, but other features mark a number of crimes as tho work of the same men. An outstanding crime that is credited to the gang was the jewel robbery at a Rangiora shop last week, and to this is linked two other crimes on the same night. The chain of coincidence started in Christchurch, where a Dodge touring car was stolen from the garage of Mr. C. G. Clark. At Kaiapoi a petrol station was entered, and a quantity of petrol, stolen. Then came the robbery at tho shop in Rangiora, when £IOO worth of jewellery was taken, and an attempt was made on the safe. The following day Mr. Clark's car was recovered; it had four gallons more petrol in it than it had when the car was stolen.

The, thieves have worked cunningly. It seemed foolish at first that they should run considerable risk in " borrowing" a car from a private garage, when with considerably less trouble one could be taken from a city parking area. They had u good roason, however. When a car is stolen from a street, the fact is usually reported within a short period, and then every policeman in the district is looking for it. It would prove awkward for a thief not only to be arrested in charge of a stolon car, but also to have a load of stolen goods with him. The present gang had a double advantage in taking a vehicle from a privato garage. They had the use of the car for the evening, and, in addition, if they were seen getting away from the scene of a crime, the description and number of th® car provided only a scanty clue to the police. A number of cars havo been stolen from private garages recently, and there hag also been something of an epidemic of thefts of petrol and other motor supplies from garages and cars left parked in the suburbs. Not all of these are written to the account of the one gang, because thefts always bring imitators. Some of these thieves are likely to get a surprise in the near future, as steps are being taken to increase very considerably the risk of thefts from garages.

THEFTS BY YOUTHS.

OFFENCES IN WELLINGTON.

[bv telegraph.—press association.]

WELLINGTON. Thursday. Five youths, stated to bo members of a gang which* evidently operated on an extensive scale around the city recently, appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., today on charges of theft, to which they pleaded guilty. They were:—William Arthur Reilly, aged 19; Allan Arthur Lewer, 21 j Andrew May, 22; Alexander Ross, 20; and Gerald Robert Groom, 18. Reilly, Ross and Groom were sent to a Borstal institution for three years, and May and Lewer were admitted to probation for three years.