STOLEN JEWELLERY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1259, 13 October 1911, Page 5

STOLEN JEWELLERY.

THE HAUL AT AUCKLAND

SUSPECTS BROUGHT BACK

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. William and Maud Rogers, who ' are suspected of stealing jewellery from Kohn's shop in Queen street, Auckland, on March 18th last, arrived by the Maitai yesterday, in charge of Detective Scott, of Auckland. The history of the doings of the pair in San Francisco, and their subsequent arrest, is of an interesting character. William Rogers arrived in California from Hong Kong (whence he had apparently gone via Sydney from Auckland) on April 20th. Maud Rogers arrived two days later by the Manuka. The suspicions of the police were attracted to them by the sudden inundation of jewellery into pawnshop, circles. Earlv on the morning of Thursday, May 14th last, Detective -Sergeants Duncan, Afatheson, and Edward O'Dea- arrested Rogers (whose alias is Furnan). Shortly before 8 o'clock on the same night his wife was lured to the city prison by a decoy message, and was taken into custody. Both were charged with having violated section 497 of the Penal Act by .smuggling £1000 worth of stolen property into the State. A good deal of the stolen property was recovered from pawnshops and a room at the Winchester hotel, where the Rogers had engaged a room. Rogers and his wife absolutely refused to discuss their predicai ment, but when confronted by the various articles recovered by the detectives they admitted having gone to San Francisco from Sydney. Most of the jewellery lecovered was marked "Kohn." but Rogers declared that it belonged to a brother in England, and that he had taken it to America in order to create a market for the disposal of the articles. The latter included ladies' brooches, rings, watches, ornaments, chains, and a few small diamonds and pearls. The efforts of the couple to dispose of the jewellery began on April 27th (just prior to the arrest of William Rogers) at a pawnshop across the street from the police headquarters, Rogers being alleged to have received -£39 from the proprietor. When Rogers was placed in a! cell he attempted to smuggle out a note to Mrs Rogers toy a messepger boy. It was intercepted-, and :the *'boy was sent to ask Mrs Rogers to.cpme to meet her husband. Her arrest .iojjowed . The note read as fdlJow's^: "Dear Maud, — I am in the court /opposite the shop you saw this morning. . .Come,, to see me, and say that you saw me arrested. Do not say anything about the Holy City. They are thinking of charging me with smuggling goods from Lon- | don to New York. Say we arrived ten days ago in New York from London, W.C. Do not say Warwickshire, as 1 would not like the old people to hear about it. Dump all things N.Z. Come at once." — Billy." Beneath was signed W. Rogers, as if to show what name he had given. The ; terms "Holy City" and "N.Z." were at first believed to be a secret code, but it_ was afterwards learned that "Holy City" was the popular name for Christchurch, and that "N.Z." was undoubtedly an abbreviation of New Zealand. How the articles were successfuilly smuggled into the port of San Francisco is a mystery. The pawn tickets indicated a value of £800 for the pawned valuables. It showed that Rogers iobtained £120 on them. After their arrest the couple sought to gain their liberty on a writ of habeas ? corpus. When Detective Scott arrived; .to obtain the extradition of the couple, 'the matter had to go before the Supreme Court of the United States, in order to see whether there' was ground or not for them to be handed over to the New Zealand authorities. Ota the matter being proved, the charge of smuggling .goods into California was abandoned, and Detective Scott was handed the ; extradition on September 18th, and sail,ed with the Rogers on the Maitai. The ? detec£ive was detained in the States for ,three months all but two days over the matter, .the delay being occasioned by commtihications having to be sent from Washington to the authorities in London. Both of the accused were taken on to Auckland by the Main Trunk train to-day.