BOY CRACKSMAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23064, 15 December 1936, Page 14

BOY CRACKSMAN

SKILL DECEIVES POLICE Burglary by a boy of nine was declared at Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire, to have been so cleverly executed that the police mistook it for the work of an old hand (says the Daily Mail). After his career had been described, the lad wafc sent to.an approved school for five years. The exploit which deceived the police was said to have been carried out when the boy and two other children, aged four and three, broke hi to a joinery shop. He removed one pane of glass to get into the office, where he stole three fountain pens, and another pane to enable him to enter the workshop. The owner found tools scattered, thousands of nails and screws strewn and buried in the sawdust on the floor, two gallons of creosote splashed about and painted on walls, and the‘first-aid box opened and iodine bandages scattered. One of two housebreaking offences which the boy asked to be taken into consideration concerned an unoccupied dwelling at Rhos-on-Sea, from which he was said to have taken property worth £34, including a camera, binoculars, toy trains, a model farmyard, and - preserved fruit.

The boy broke into this house in company with a five-year-old girl. Police declared that every room had been entered, the contents of cupboards, bookcases, and wardi’obes being strewn about, and tins of preserved fruit and meats opened. A bottle of Martini and a bottle of cider had been sampled. The dining room resembled a shambles. The blinds were drawn and a fire lit. One end of the polished table was covered with a mixture of flour, sugar and jam, the result of an attempt to bake a cake. The other end was littered with pieces of preserved fruit on plates and saucers. A teapot contained a mixture of tomato sauce and jam. Sugar had been scattered all over the carpet, and candle grease was on the furniture. On the bureau was left a note signed by the boy and addressed to another boy. It read: “You have to be in our royal gang.—By order.”