CLEVER THIEVES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19199, 16 June 1924, Page 10

CLEVER THIEVES.

STOHY OF £IOO,OOO NECKLACE. HUW THE POLICE SHEETED THE CRIME HOME. The October number of the Cosmopolitan, an American publication, contains an interesting account of what is known as the Max Meyer pearl robbery in the spring of 1913. The story is told by Bir Basil Thomson, former chief of the criminal investigation department at Scotland Yard, who describes how the gems were recovered. The pearl necklace, valued at over £IOO,OOO, was stolen from the sealed package in which it was despatched from the Paris establishment of Max Meyer to the London establish'" of the same name, and in its place were substituted small bits of coal of the same weight as the pearls. A dailv wat h was kept upon Hutton Garden; and eventually the police suspicions were narrowed down to four men---Loc-kett, Gold. Grizzard. ami Marks but at no time could the quartet be induced to come together. The men were followed with a constant change of detectives and a great number of different disguises were used, but apparently there was none which would deeive them. .Finally, a disguise was decided upon which enabled a detective to approach two of the men in the .street, overhear their conversation, and learn their plans, as a result of which all four —arrested at the Oxford tube station. The next day the man who cut. ilie seal used to imitate that stamped on the package -as found at Hammersmith. and lie recognised Grizzard as the man for whom he executed the order. It was then pos.-ibie to complete the story of (he crime, and Sir Basil nrnceeds to do so much in the manner of Sherlock Holmes and his collaborator Grizzard had licen the one to plan the crime. He knew that several times a week the London estab'i.'Oment of Max Meyer received shipments by mail from their Paris sben. and that usually these packages contained diamonds, Griz/ard began by cultivating the acquaintance of the postman. The, postman was a man of no great intelligence: b" d ; J ids work without interest in it, and when it was over he went to a certain bar. where he spent the greater part of his earnings. Grizzard became friendly with the postman at this bar. Later, he several times met him on the street while the ncstman was delivering his paekoges. and stopped to talk to him. Sometimes i-i do'ng this he to"'- from the nest man's bag one of the pae.ka.ges, looked at it, and at once returned it to the hag. FinelK- in this way lie came upon a package addressed to Max Meyer. He took a quick imprint, of the seal on a hit of wax hidden in his hand. The wax impression was taken to tho obscure engraver,' who unsuspiciously engraven! a sea! to correspond with it. Now Grizzard approached the postman more openly. “Would yon like,” he asked, “to make £100?” “£100,” the postman exclaimed. It seemed a great sum to him. “You can do it easily. >ll you have to do is tho next time you have a package for Meyer, and I meet you on the street, hand me the package, go on and deliver some of your other mail, come back the same way. and von will find mo waiting with a package where yon left me, and you can deliver it at Mover’s.” The postman reflected. It did nol seem a very serious matter to Dave a package in the hands of one of his friends, receive it back in a few minutes, and then deliver it. “You won’t make a fool of me?" he questioned- “I moan you’ll surely ho there and give me the package back?” “Y’ou have my word.” said Grizzard.

After lhat each day Grizzard waited for the postman on the sired. Finally, one day the postbag contained a package for Max Meyer. The postman handed it to Grizzard; Grizzard dashed around the corner .and up (o Marks’s shop. There Marks and Gold were waiting. They quickly broke the seals, shook nut the necklace, put in the box some bits of coal of the same weight; then they replaced the wrappings, brought, the broken seals together, melted the wax with a hot poker, impressed the melted wax again with the Meyer seal, and Grizzard hastened out auain. Sir Basil proceeds to tell of the search made at tho houses of the four men. of the discarding of the pearls by the wife of Lockett, who, in order to save her husband, secreted them in a matchbox, and, evading the police, dropped the box into the gutter, to be found by the first comer. The first comer happened to lie a plumber’s helper. lie was on his way back to the shop to get some tools. Ho had filled his pipe, but could not light it, because he had no match. Ho saw tho box. touched it with his toe to discover whether it seemed full or empty, found it heavy, nicked it up, and shook out into his hand some of the ‘"beads.” He thought them imitation pearls. Still, as the newspapers had been full of some lost pearls, and tho police station was not out of his way, he stepped in there with them. Tlie district superintendent at the police station also believed them to ho imitations, but sent them on to ."Scotland Yard. I, on receiving them, did not believe them real, but sent for Mr Meyer in order to consult an expert. Explaining the disguise which deceived the men while they were under observation. Sir Basil says ; “You have read Poe’s story. ‘The Purloined Letter’? The letter was concealed by sticking it openlj' in the most conspicuous place in tho apartment. Tho searchers who ransacked the place for it did not imagine that, with tho. fate of its possessor depending on his keeping it from them, he would leave it where they were sure to see it. We used the same method. Wo disguised one of our detectives ns a policeman. A detective is a policeman disguised as a civilian. Remember that these thieves knew police methods as well ns wo did. They knew that no uniformed policeman would be assigned to watch them, or would even he acquainted with their connection with the case. As Grizzard delivered his message to Marks, they saw a uniformed policeman standing hear them. It never entered their heads that we would have dressed one of our detectives in a police uniform in order to spy on them.”