CARGO PILLAGING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16297, 23 March 1927, Page 7

CARGO PILLAGING

AN ARTISTIC JOB /.. GISBORNE FIRM'S LOSS Cargo pillagers find soft-goods consignments most profitable to' work upon, and though shipments to tobacconists are sometimes interfered with, X the drapers suffer most from, the depredations of tho thieves. A feature of this class of crime is the skill with which, goods are removed from cases, and the traces of their removal covered so that the cases are accepted by the consignees as undamaged. One recent instance of.pillage, encountered bv a Gisborne firm of drapers, was so artistically dona as to leave but one conclusion—that the goods had been removed from the case before it was shipped from England. 1 A press message published a few days ago, related how a retailer, finding that a cobble-stone had been inserted in a shipment of goods to disguise the absence of part of the erstwhile contents, .had forthwith dispatched the stone to Scotland Yard, with ' the result that it was found to fit a hole in the cobbled yard of the carter who had handled, the . goods between factory and shipside in London. Ther» "' is ft strong suspicion that cargo-ppng-ing has bean developed into a regular business by an association of rogues in the big continental ports, and the circumstances in the case recently discovered by the,, Gisborne firm adds fore* to this suspicion. The 1 box was invoiced as containing silk velvets, in large bolts which could hardly be disposed/of by men .working aboard * vessel; when it waV delivered, the case showed no signs of having been tampered with, the iron bands bein;r in place and the lead seals undamaged. Inside, however,- was nothing but straw, such as is used to pack bottles in cases. The : original goods could not. have been . removed and disposed of without . sen- ,. ous danger after the case was put H aboard ship", and the conclusion reach- ~ ed by tbe consignees was that the silk velvet had been taken fFom the ease at some stage between the warehouse and the boat. Another Gisborne firm, also dealing extensively in drapery, found a recent shipment seriously reduced. by pillage, without indication of any . mishandling of the case.