AMAZING ROBBERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMAZING ROBBERIES

SOME FAMOUS CASES JEWELS OF GREAT PRICE NECKLACE FOUND IN GUTTER Really big robberies are rare, but there is always an amazing story when they do occur, writes Mr. T. C. Bridges, a noted London journalist. A brewer tapped one of New York's great fourfoot mains and ran his business on stolen water. He is said to have stolen a million gallons a day, and now he has been fined £200,000. It is safe to say that no one before him ever stole so much water. The valuo of properties stolen in London yearly is put at about £700,000. Naturally, jewel robberies are responsible for the record figures, and of these the greatest was the theft of the £150,000 pearl necklace in 1913.

This necklace, composed of sixty-one magnificent Oriental pearls, was insured for £135,000. It was sent by registered post from the Paris representative of the firm to Messrs. Mayer in Hatton Garden, London, but when the parcel arrived, although it appeared intact, all it contained was eleven pieces of lump sugar. A reward of £IO,OOO was offered for the recovery of the gems, and two months later the pearls were picked up from the gutter in St. Paul's Road, Highbury, hy a workman, who thought they were marbles and tried to exchange them for a glass of beer. Sir years earlier, in June, 1907, the insignia of the Order of St. Patrick was stolen from Dublin Castle. One piece alone, set with wonderful Brazilian diamonds, was valued at £30,000, and the total value was fully £50,000. The thief was never caught. A really dre?:lful theft was that of the famous Byzantine silver-gilt cross preserved in Gravedona church on Lake Como. This cross was an exquisite piece of fourteenth century work. It was

valued at £40,000, and was so highly thought of that, during the Great "War, it was removed for safety to Rome. In 1920 a blackguardly thief broke in and stole it, then smashed it up with a hammer and sold the pieces for £2 to a silversmith, who melted them down. This case recalls that of the jewelled circlet taken from the ancient church of St. Michel, which crowns the rock of Mont St. Michel. This piece of jewellery is believed to have been stolen by a tramp. Although comparatively modern, it was worth £20,000. The late Marquess of Anglesey was the victim of a big jewel theft. He collected precious stones, and used to carry them about with him. He was staying at a hotel in Piccadilly, and had no less than £40,000 worth of jewels with him. A thief, dressed up as a hotel servant, got hold of the key of the marquess' room, and, packing the jewel-cases in a dirty clothes-basket, went off with them.

One reads of mail-van robberies. Some years ago {hree vans of the Indian mail train running to Brindisi were looted.

Ninety-six mailbags were ripped open and all that was of most value stolen. Just before Laroche the line

was under repair, and the train slowed. Evidently the thieves knew this, and there they loft the train, carrying with them booty worth £BO,OOO.

The value of tho silver stolen from Waterloo Station in August, 1931, was only £IOOO, but this theft was also a record of a kind. The boxes, one of which held £SOO in shillings, and the other £SOO in sixpences, were of course, very heavy. They were taken in broad dayiight from the parcels office by two men with a truck, and the officials believed they had the ordinary release pass to take tho boxes. Apart from tho impudence of the whole proceeding, such an amount of silver coin had never before been stolon at one time. Another interesting effort was the theft of bullion from Croydon Aeroin March last. The amount taken was no less than £21,400. This was tho first gold raid on an airport.