THE DARK LANTERN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 173, 14 August 1909, Page 4

THE DARK LANTERN.

A STUtIILNG SEMES OF TKI'E POLICE STOKIE.S. HIE PATIENCE OF DETECTIVE LEA. A good many valuables pass through the Customhouse, but robberies are very rare. There are two eases on record, however, where the ingenuity of the thieves i-ullicd the care of the ollieials. In the lii'st. gold chains worth .CStWO were stolen from ihc Customhouse t;uay. Within a few months jewellery to tlie value of ,COOOO disappeared. Somebody bad secreted himself in the ofliee of the Receiver of Fines and Forfeitures, and during the night had either picked the lot k of the safe or had used u duplicate key.

The only thing Detective Lea, who had charge of. the cas'e, was pretty sure about was that the thief was well acquainted with the procedure of thc Customhouse.

But there the matter ended. Every body said Die thieves -wnold never bi discovered everybody but Dcteetivi Lea; and he held his tongue—held it, ii fact, for over a twelvemonth. A (JAMK OF "BLUFF."

J-ica had exceptional patience and an exceptional knowledge of London thieves, and, casting about in his mind for men most iikely to be mixed up in so daring a robbery, be fixed upon two, named Jourdau and .Sullivan. He was familiar with their haunts and their associates', and, accidentally meeting one of the latter, followed hiiii to the Red Lion, in King-street, Holborn.

In the liousc were the two men he wanted. When Lea "barged them on suspicion with 1. •:..- concerned in the Customhouse robbery they laughed the idea to scorn. The charge was, indeed, a piece of "bluff" on Lea's part, and was only meant as a ground for getting hold of Jourdau and Sullivan while he made further enquiries. ■ These enquiries' led to a "find." Tinmen had left behind them at the public house a complete kit of houschivakin'j Implements. Subsequently, in the fire place, the landlord found three brooches seven large brilliants, seven emeralds, and about four dozen small diamonds. Lea was sent for, and discovered, hidden a considerable distance up the chiin>ice, a hag, in which were massive chain; of foreign manufacture, which '\vere identified as part of the first robbery on the Customhouse Quay. NOTING THE NOTES.

Again the indefatigable Lea went to work. The plunder taken from tiie safe 'iiclmlod «oid ami banknotes, and the numbers of Hie latter were known. .V none of these notes had passed i:it< circulation, the assumption was that tin .thieves were afraid to do anything with hem inimcdinlely, for fear o'f detection, When a sufficient time had elapsed, no ioiiht (hey would he cautiously passed. Lea knew this well enough' ,and he kept his eye on certain Customhouse ollieials, whose doings somehow struck linn as suspicious. He fixed himself es weinlly on a man aarued Hucv, a land-ing-waiter. Hucy was earning aliout thirty shillings a week, but .spending more. ' *"

One day Lea watched Huey into a shop, saw him purchase something, anr' ■ bange a note. After Iluey was gone, l-ea went to the shopkeeper, told him ivlio he was, and asked to see the note It was one of those missing. Hucv who was a stranger to the shopkeeper had endorsed it in the name of "Jack son.

ihis was enough. Lea knew his man uid when he bluntly told Iluev he should 'ako hnn into custody, the'man, thor•ujglily scared, confessed everything The gang comprised six men-threr customhouse employees and three out .iders, of whom two were Jourdan and •bullivau. the suggestion that it wareasy to roo the Fines Office came fron one ot the employees, named Scale Alott, another employee, volunteered tr get an iinipressiou of the outer key. am' at this juncture the profession;.: hands, Jourdan and Sullivan and n man iiamcd ila v, joined in Jourdan was not the man to make a I cap in he dark. I[ o wanted to know j before he entered upon the "job" n-hethcr it was worth the risk. He ascer-' tamed this in a very ingenious way > The sale of confiscated merchandise with which the Forfeiture and Fines Office was closely concerned, was coming oir 111 a few days, and Jourdan suggested that one of the party should buy a lot at the sale, and on paying for it he could see what money wa ß fa t h e safe by pre* t *ntw g a note of SlK h w amount tHaf

the caretaker, to give change, must go to tho safe.

This was agreed to, and a lot of ruin having been purchased for £ll, Jourdan took a fifty-pound note to pay for it. "CODDING" THE CASHIER.

The cashier, finding that he had not got sufficient change about him, went ~to the safe. Having only one key, he was obliged to wait until the person who kept the other came downstairs. It is !the custom to have a double lock to the iron safes of public institutions', so that they cannot bo opened except with the concurrence of two persons, each of whom has a key. The cashier then took out a. large cash-box, which he could only move with both his hands, and on its being opened there appeared to be about £SOOO in gold and notes in it, at least.

Juunlaii gave his own name and address to be endorsed on the note which he handed over, which Mott censured him for doing, since all the particulars were written in a book; so it was agreed that when the robbery was effected the book should be destroyed by the leaves being cut out and burned. The final plans were arranged. May was to act as a "stowaway," and be passed in during the confusion which generally prevailed when the offices were closed at the end of the day. Accordingly, Scale, Jourdan, and Sullivan smuggled him in by "Hashing" an umbrella, under cover of which May gliilcil in, and was lost in the darkness of the passage.

In the morning Mott was to find an excuse for keeping the clerks engaged while May escaped. May had, of course, to remain in the office all night, and while there he took care to find the book in which was' inscribed Jourdan's name ns the purchaser of the rum, and tore the leaves out.—Answers.