SERIES OF FRAUDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14685, 19 November 1909, Page 5

SERIES OF FRAUDS

IMPERSONATIONS IX GERMANY.

PORTER COMMITS SUICIDE,

t'jess Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

BERLIN, November 17.

Luedekc (formerly a minor clerk in the Berlin Provincial Court), Meyer (a cook), and Warnicke (a- cyclist), who went to the Civil Court of Berlin about the hour at which the judges retire and impersonated the judges, collecting about £200, had previously perpetrated similar frauds r.t Leipzig, Bonn, Elbcriield, and Dusseldorf.' ; ■

A porter at the Leipzig Court has conr mitted suicide as the result of. his voxa tion through being duped.

The trick of ■ the cobbler captain of Kocpenick, who in a oecond-hand uniform look command of a nquad of German Guardsmen and need them to arrest a, mayor and rob a'municipal treasury, was a tame affair compared to an incident described in Tho Times by Mr Henry Chamberlain, a retired .naval lieutenant, last year.

On a walking tour in Germany be camo upon a body of Saxon soldiers taking their ease in a wood, and, though his Gorman vocabulary consisted of only about 40 words, «s down and com-ereed with them. Ho was wearing an old grey suit, a felt hat, end flannel shirt, and carried an umbrella. .Quite casually he mentioned that he was a naval officer.

"At the mention'of (he word 'officer' all tho ven eat up, buttoned their timice, and bJ-A<i<l on (heir swords, or bayonets —I forget which. ' Are you going to Nicderbronn?' was my next question. 'Yes,' they replied, 'we are going lo walk to Niederbronn and there take tho train io Kitsch.' What evil genius prompted mc to make the next remark t cannot tell, but, though uttered in a joke, its consequences were perfectly astounding. 'I, tco, am going to Niederbronn. jf oil are my regiment; 1 am your colonel!'

" Up they 6prang to their feet, fell in two deep, and kept quite silent, as if on rorade. 'Right turn!'—and off we ma relied 1 Carrying my umbrella as if it were a sword. Breaking a grassy slope wo marched up lo the top at' a' swinging pace, still observing perfect silence, and in step.

'" A short distance off was a solitary so.tlicr, 0f.(1,c eamo regiment, lying at full length on a bench near (he entrance to a wood—tunic unbuttoned, sword unbuckled etc. On catching sight of the approaching squad up ho jumped, butteneu his tunic, bncklod on his weapon, stood rigidly to attention, md , V | KII # regiment camo by 'tailed on,' as if •■- wis the most natural thins in lh o world .0 do.

."A disconcerting thought arose. ' What mil happen if «- c chance acres, a German o ,cer-and how, in n ,y broken German, can 1 ever hope to explain Vliis extraf„,™" y f asS " ,n l ll i ol '. «I command of the ■IIiCM docile and amiable Saxons with 2 SOt out o! sight, as ra pi ( n y M a house there, was my late 'regiment' *A marching with the'regularity if deck-