Accidents & Offences

New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 15

Accidents & Offences

ROBBERY OE WATCHES & JEWELLERY. GOODS TO THE VALUE OP £BOO STOLEN. Wellington was rather startled on Wednesday by the announcement that a most extensive robbery of watches and jewellery had taken place on the premises of Mr G. L. Jenness, watchmaker and jeweller, Willis-street. Mr Jenness has been so long in business in this city, and so generally respected, that the feeling of astonishment was mrngled with that of sympathy. No robbery, on anything like the same scale, had ever before taken place in Wellington. The list of the goods taken, the value of which Mr Jenness estimates at £796 4s6d, is as follows:—26gold watches, 40 silver watches, 20 solid gold alberts, 15 English alberts, 20 ladies’ gold alberts, 40 to 45 gold necklets, 24 silver necklets, 12 ladies’ silver alberts, 6 dozen silver rings, 12 gold brooches, 4 pairs diamond earrings, 24 gold brooches and earrings, including 5 diamond Bets, valued from £3 to £35, 12. gold and diamond scarfpins. On Saturday night Mr Jenness had put away the bulk of the goods in the safe, where they remained until Tuesday morning. Feeling rather tired that night, Mr Jenness allowed the goods to remain where he placed them in the morning, and retired to rest about the usual hour. So far as he is able to recollect, he doe 3 not remember having lately seen any persons, except one, of a suspicious-looking character in his shop. The man whom he noticed stood at the off counter, and appeared to take a cursory survey of the premises. The doors were locked, the keys being left in the inside. The burglars, finding that to- be the case, cut away one of the panels near the lock, and turned the key. They effected an entrance by the back door, and passed through the workshop into the front portion of the premises. Though Mr Jenness and family always sleep on the premises, they did not hear a sound of any kind, but it is evident the burglars were disturbed by some noise or alarm, for they would not in all probability have left so soon had not something or another occurred. Mr Jenness thinks that a clock, which sounds a loud bugle alarm every hour, must have been the cause of their leaving as soon as they did. Constable Bree, who was on the Willis-street beat on Tuesday night, states that he saw no suspicious-looking persons about. It is quite possible, seeing how close the premises are to the harbor, that the burglars might have got hold of a. boat, and that they arrived on the scene by that means, and decamped in the same way. There is no clue whatever to the robbery so far, but the detectives and police force are on the alert, and no effort will be spared to capture the gang. It is quite evident that they are not mere amateur robbersthe systematic way in which they did their work proves that they are " professionals.” The lantern which they used and left behind them in the shop is a very common article, such as any market gaidener might bring into towr. The glass was covered over with sheets of zinc, which could be easily ma le to slide up or down as required ; and one side of the glass was covered over with thin pasteboard. The tools which they used were all carefully taken away. Mr Jenness finds some little consolation in the faGt that the robbery might have been a good deal worse, as would inevitably

have been the case had theie not been an interruption .of some kind. He hopes, whether hia goods are recovered or not, that the gang will be captured and brought to justice.

The bodies of two of the men who were drowned in Evans Bay some time back, while fetching sand for the defence works in a boat, were found floating in Evans Bay on Saturday and Sunday. That of Niels Nielsen was seen by Constable Remer on Saturday afternoon, and was recognised by the brother-in-law of the deceased, James Cahill, and by a man named Richard Davis. The remains of Matthew Costello, the man who was stated to have joined the party at the head of the bay wben the boat was starting, on the return trip, were seen on Sunday, and the fact wasr reported to the police by Mr C.- Crawford. They were recognised by the widow and a> man named Joseph Dnffv. Both bodies were so decomposed and destitute of flesh a 3 to be unrecognisable, except by the clothing and the articles in their pockets. The Coroner, on being informed by the police that there was no further evidence beyond that adduced at the inquest on Timothy Doyle, did not think it necessary to hold an inquest, and accordingly the body of Nielsen was buried on Saturday. The other was interred on Monday. The two bodies still missing are those of Ned Blandville, the boatman, and Patrick Hickey, one of the navvies. *