A £1000 HAUL

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 54, 9 April 1914, Page 7

A £IOOO HAUL

BIG CITY BURGLARY, ',*

JEWELLER'S SHOP ENTERED. . WINDOW STOCK STOLEN: A DAEING THEFT. • \ ''] What seems to be one of the biggest ..> burglaries committed iu Christehurcn ..,: for some years was perpetrated last "' night, when the premises of Mr F. W. Tucker, jeweller, of High Street, were i entered, and a large number of valuable ■ articles stolen. The value of the miss- .' ■ ing goods is well over £IOOO. A Busy Centre. The most extraordinary feature of the . burglary is that it was one of the busiest corners of the eity. There is probably no part of Christ- „ church through which more people pass -• at night than the section of High Street which runs from Hereford Street to,the ; Clock Tower. Tucker's shop is situated ,> in the White Hart buildings—practi- -, cally next door to'the hotel—between >_ Cashel Street and the tower, and at al-. ' most any hour belated wayfarers are passing to and fro. Nevertheless • the ■-. thief, or thieves; managed to make an -; entrance into the shop from the street; - 1 and go away unobserved. When business closed for the day last evening, all the doors were securely---locked. When the employees returned <- to work this morning it was found that an unwelcome visitor had paid a noC" f, turnal call, and had taken' 1 with him a .' substantial memento of the occasion.' ," There were no signs of a violent entry / having been made, and no damage had 'f been done to the shop fittings. Rings Stolen from Window. - There were sigiis, however, that the Htock in the front window had been in- ■'> terfered with, and several velvet stands ' which had contained a number of rings - ; . when the shop was shut .were lying about empty. Various other * were missing. All the articles taken were small, aa'd X the whole "loot" could easftr have" been carried in the thief's pot pets: '/ f Entry .Through Fanlight}., y . ; So far as could be gathered .£>»**. a / , cursory examination of the shop, -wvtiy-'': must have been effected- by> meai«9 of ~ •■ the fanlight over the main entrance fr» \ the shop in High Street. This fanlight ';>. opens at the "top, and works on a hingo immediately above the door. When --, opened to its full extent there is a space, *; of only about a foot between it and the,.' •', door posts, which space,, tapers away.to ! nothing at the" bottom. The fan light is,; '< also a good twelve feet from the ground,- } In order to get in by the fanblght, ';J the thief must have had an to -watcb.for one of .those comparatively ',*"' rare moments when the street; was quite clcar,>not only of pedestriaps, but of the patrolling policeman. He would have to be helped up to the top of the door, and then exercise somej considerable skill as a contortionist in worming his way through the very narrow opening.,

Inside the Slfop. ■ Once inside, progress would be comparatively simple. Just beside the fan-. . light is a tall glass show-case, on whites-" the -intruder would find a secure footing, and, from which he could easily slip down to the floor. Practically the whole shop would then be open to bim, and he could go through the stock with. > but little fear of disturbance. When a SUN representative visited the shop this morning he found but little -j indication that anything out of the ordinary had happened. The extensive stock was still standing in orderly. array in the cases, -with the exception that .four or five empty ring stands. ''■ used for window .display, were lying on' the counter. Every ring had been taken from its'slot, and all that remained to show the value of the articles • they had held up till last night were the little price slips gummed above each slot. ' '/"'. "

A Big Haul. A little rapid mental arithmetic showed that the missing goods represented quitje a tidy .sum. The prices" on the tags<ran from £5 up to £35 and £4O, and on each stand there was room for over 20 rings. The selling price of the rings alone must have been every penny of £IOOO, while there were also, several empty cases such as are used to hold brooches, pendants, and necklaces. These, too, had received the attention of the burglar. It is clear that the thief must have known his way about, and probably had a good idea before he entered the shop of what he wanted. The articles actually removed formed but a very small proportion of the stock in the window, and their absence would probably attract no attention except from those, having an intimate knowledge of the contents of the window. The removal of the stand* would be a matter of only a few moments; and the thief could easily transfer the rings into his pockets in the recesses of the shop without any danger of interference.

Burglary Well Planned. Th« problem of egress from the shop after the actual burglary was committed must have 1 called for some solution, and had .probably' been elaborately

planned beforehand. To the amateur theorist it must appear absolutely necessary that the thief had an ac--eomplice outside to keep "cave" for him, and let him know when it would bo safe to climb out through the fanlight. The lock of the door is such that it could not be opened from the inside, and there were no signs of- its having been forced. It is clear that the burglar must have got out as he got in—by means of the fanlight. To anyone skilful enough to force a "way through the narrow opening from the outside, it would be an even simpler business to pass through from the shop. ■ It would not take a very clever gymnast to climb from the counter to the top of the wooden screen at the back of the window, the top of which is on a level with the fanlight, and right alongside it. He could then drop down into the door recess, and "make his getaway," as the Americans say, with little difficulty. An Accomplice Necessary. If, as seems certain, there was an accomplice in the street, it is very strange that his presence was not detected by -the police. He must have known his game very well indeed. Anyone whose "business takes him into the streets in -the very early hours of the morning is well acquainted with the quite legitimate anxiety of the police to know the reason for his wanderings. No man ■could possibly stand about on the side-,-walk for more than a few minutes, before finding himself in the glare of an olectric torch, and being subjected to a few pointed questions as to how he -was not home in bed. . The whole burglary to have "been .elaborately planned and skilfully ■carried out, as so far. as*could be ascertained this morning, there, was practically, no indication to show at what hour the theft had been perpetrated, or who * ;were the guilty persons. A Daring Theft. Enquiries made during the morning ; show that the robbery was a most daring one. There can be no doubt that ■entry to the shop was made by means of the fanlight. It has evidently been some time since the glass of the fanlight was cleaned, and there are ample <- signs that the intruder brushed fairly lard against it, as a good deal of the •dust has been removed on the side nearest the White Hart Hotel. On tMs side of the door recess there is an outside show-case, on.which the burglar musf have stood in\ order to squeeze through the opening. A big patch of dust has also been wiped off the outside Trtrall at this point. The burglar could" not have been in the shop, very long. He .seems to have known what he wanted, took it, and decamped as soon as possible. There was £2O odd in money in the cash ■register, but it was not disturbed. Is There a Gang? So far as is known the case is an - isolated one, no previous burglary of the same nature having been reported in" Christchureh for some considerable time. There have been seyeral burglar- ., ies in Auckland lately, which have been ' generally attributed to an American gang attracted to the northern city by the Exhibition. Last week an American was arrested on a charge of being concerned in a burglary in a jeweller's shop. The police are naturally very reticent, but there is reason" to believe ±hat they are not altogether without a We. 5 They claim to "know something" which may develop in an interesting inanner. [ Precautions Against Burglary. appears that there are very few shops in Christchureh which can be 'called burglar-proof. The fronts of the shops are only moderately protected, the proprietors trusting to the supervision exercised by the police and the toightwatchmen,' who ;make periodical pounds. One jeweller who was seen to-day said that the firms who left their valuable stock in the window overnight were inMting disaster. In his own shop he cleared out the trays containing the gold articles and set stones every evening, and these were put away' in the strong room. The door of the strong \ room was reflected in*a mirror, and .;. could be observed by the watchmen from the street. The fronts of shops were npt usually protected to any great extent, but at the sides and rear there were usually iron bars and doors.