POLITE JEWEL THIEF

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 21

POLITE JEWEL THIEF

LONDON, August 29. “He turned on his heel, laughed, bowed himself out, and slammed the door, and that’s the last we saw of him." This is how a, jeweller's assistant describes the climax of a clever hotel theft in London, where a smiling, debonair youth walked off with £2500 worth of rings. Using the name of “Mr Bolman,” he visited Mappin and Webb's, in Regent street, arid asked to have the rings sent to a Piccadilly hotel for the inspection of his sick wife. The manager says: “We’ve often heard that story, so' I sent an assistant with a burly messenger. ‘Bolman’ carried out the sick-vvife trick to a certain point. When he asked to show the rings to his wife in an adjoining bedroom the jeweller politely asked to be allowed to accompany them. ‘Bolman’ demurred,, and then played a real trick. He was examining and admiring a ring, and suddenly shot out his arms, knocking the two custodians in a heap. He vanished, and when they tried to follow him the door handle came off. It had been unscrewed. The other door was fastened bv fixing a bolt. The telephone wire was cut and the bell-rope, hanging bv a single strand, broke. They opened the window and .attracted the attention of a police station under their very noses. “A sergeant called out. 'You're making a great fuss : what is it all about?’ When lie learned the facts he rushed round to the hotel, but the bird had flown.”