£20,000 VANISHES

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1935, Page 5

£20,000 VANISHES

GOLD BULLION STOLEN

AMAZING ENGLISH CRIME

STRONGROOM ENTERED

MOTOR BANDITS BLAMED

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 10.30 p.m. London, March 6. Gold to the value of £20,000 was delivered at Croydon aerodrome last night for dispatch to the Continent and deposited in a strongroom, but when the strongroom was opened to-day the gold had vanished. Three boxes were stolen. The first contained 6000 sovereigns, the second gold bars, and the third American gold dollars.

The gold robbery is one of the most baffling in the history of crime. The boxes, each weighing 2401 b. were locked up at 10.30 on Tuesday night and when the vault was opened at 7.30 a.m. on Wednesday they had vanished. The outer doors of the vault was still locked but the inner steel door was ajar. None of the locks were forced and all keys were accounted for. A wax impression of the key would have been quite useless as, if it were inaccurate to 1-100,000 th. part of an inch, it would have failed to open the steel door. Scotland Yard has only the most slender clues to the robbery, says the Daily Mail. It is believed it was carried out by car bandits uniformed closely to resemble Imperial Airways officials.