HOTEL SENSATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20065, 23 March 1935, Page 2

HOTEL SENSATION

THEFT BY ARMED BANDITS Two masked burglars entered the fashionable Biltmore Hotel, at Miami, Florida, recently, and, producing revolvers, robbed Mrs Margaret Bell of jewellery valued at £70,000. The winter season being in full swing at the time, the hotel was filled to capacity, but the bandits were able to get clear before the alarm was given. Mrs Bell —one of several guests ii> the party of Mr Harry Content, a wellknown Wall Street broker—was dressing before going out to a night club when the burglars entered. Against the urgent advice of her friends, she had insisted, earlier in the day, on wearing all her jewellery at the races, where, undoubtedly, the display attracted the notice of the thieves.

As she stood putting on the gems before a mirror in her room in the evening she saw over her shoulder two youthful-looking men, each with a handkerchief tied over the lower part of his face, enter the room. Brandishing revolvers, they ordered her to take off her four ropes of pearls, two diamind rings, a diamond bracelet, and her wrist watch. She thought they were practical jokers, but was soon disillusioned as they started to bind her, hand and foot. At this moment Mr Harry Content walked in and was immediately trussed up in the same way and made to lie face down on the floor. Mrs Bell’s maid, who next looked into the room, saw what was happening and ran into a bathroom.

Locking the door behind her, she screamed and hammered until another member of the party in the next room, realising that something was wrong, telephoned the hotel official downstairs. He was too late, however, and when a horde of servants rushed into the suite they found the thieves had vanished, leaving no trace.