A CLEVER ROGUE. BERLIN, October 17.

Otago Witness, Issue 2745, 24 October 1906, Page 17

A CLEVER ROGUE. BERLIN, October 17.

A man, who was wearing a captain's uniform and beaning a forged military order, met a corporal and 11 guardsmen inarching to Berlin with some documents. Be induced them to follow him fo the Town Hall at Kopenick, eight mile 6 away, where he arrested the Mayor. The Mayor took 4000 marks from a safe, and the pseudo-captain then ordered that the Mayor be escorted to Berlin to prison. Portion of the guardsman remained on guard at the Town Hall, the rogue disappearing. October 18. All Berlin is laughing at the Kopenick coup, which was effected by a man wearing a captain's uniform and bearing "a forged military order, and who persuaded a corporal and 11 guardsmen to follow him a distance of «ight miles to the Town Hall at Kopenick, where he arrested the Mayor, secured 4000 marks, and disappeared after ordering that the mayor be escorted to prison at Berlin. The Tagcblatt, under the heading, " The Uniform Fetish," says that the swindler succeeded because the Prussian soldiers have been systematically broken of thinking. LONDON, October 18. Reut-er's Berlin col-respondent states that the pseudo-captain changed his uniform for civilian clothes at Rixdolf, wheie Qiis sword was found. After arresting the Mayor of Kopenick in the Kaisei % 's name, he tried to extort from the terrified officials the Municipal .Savings Bank funcfe, saying that he wanted 2,000,000 marks. Fortunately, the cashier had departed. The police were impressed by the captain's bearing, and kept the crowds back while the troops conducted the mayor to a carriage, a police sergeant and a grenadier conveying him to Berlin. The mayor's wife 'was allowed to accompany him. The pseudo-captain, who arrested the Mayor of Kopenick and decamped with 4000 marks, has been identified as a clever swindler, who has already undergone a year's imprisonment. October 19. The name of the Kopenick brigand is Adolf Miller. He was born in America, but is of German parentage. At the last meeting of the Auckland Presbytery the Rev. G. B. Munro reported that he had met with great success in his endeavours to secure money for scholarships for young men studying at the Theological Hall, Dunedin. He had collected £27 13s, and besides had received one donation of £20 for two years, and _ **\& likely to receive othexo.