BURGLARS "AT WORK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12699, 22 July 1919, Page 5

BURGLARS "AT WORK.

MANY PLACES ENTERED.

PROFESSIONALS OR AMATEURS?

SOME QUEER CIRCUMSTANCES.

During the peace celebrations burglars broke into many warehouses and offices in the city, and the police are confronted with the problem of capturing what appears to be a gang of burglars. There is a similarity between the plan of operations, but the conflicting circumstances do not clearly show whether one burglar or more was at work, or whether the operators were juveniles or adults. Mr John Clarke’s premises at' 21, Bedford Row, were entered a little before midnight on Sunday. The time is clearly established, for Mrs Hail, w.lio lives with her husband on premises next door, heard somebody moving about and gave an alarm, also telephoning to the police, bait the burglar got away. It was unfortunate that Mr Hall did not investigate quietly when ho became suspicious, for the burglar had entered by a 'window on the street, and this would have been his only means of egress. As it was he called out “ Who’s there?” thinking possibly that Mr Clarke was on the premises. The police arrived promptly, at all events, comparatively speaking. To he exact, half an hour elapsed before the upholder of the law appeared. By that time the possibility of a capture was remote. Mr Clarke was sent for and lie found that the office had been fairly well ransacked. One window had been nrized up with a flat-edged tool, probably a jemmy, the sash fastener being smashed off. Evidently on© burglar had been at work here- In entering he had knocked over a little cabinet of files, but this had not frightened him off, for he had broken open Mr Clarke’s roll-top desk and ransacked the drawers. Ho drew a had blank there, for a likely looking pocket wallet that had been opened was found to contain nothing but price lists. An old bunch of keys had been taken off a lioolc and had been tried on the Milner safe, showing a pretty crude ideal of the burgling art. There was nothing in this safe except cheques, for Mr Clarke is a wholesale oil and colonmerchant, and hardware importer, and does not handle much cash in the way of notes or coin. Curiously enough a considerable sum in stamps had been ignored.: and this point was to he noted in connection with all the other hurgt laries. There were no finger left at Mr Clarke’s warehouse. The theory is that the visitor was a vouth, as he had left stamps behind. However, on this point 1 there is room for a difference of opinion as the same jemmy was used under the circumstances that pointed to adult operations. One of Mr Clarke’s two blinds was drawn, hut the other was up, and it is likely_ that the burglar was operating with an electric torch. AT J, J. NIVEN AND CO.’S. J. J, Niven and Co.’s premises at the corner of Lichfield and Madras Streets were also broken into over tho week-end, but there is no sign how the visitor got in. He ransacked the whole office, breaking open every locked drawer and smashing a small petty cash and stamp box. He also abstracted something under 5a in cash, leaving 4id in copper, and_ a quantity of stamps. In a drawer in a roll-top desk stamps to . tho value of about los were left untouched. The marks of the same jemmy indicated that the visitor was the same person who had broken 'nto Mr Clarke’s warehouse. A FRUITLESS ATTEMPT. IV. H. Simms and Co., paper merchants, of Lichfield Street, who are pear neighbours of Niven and Co., had their front double door operated on with the same old jemmy, bub it was, too hard a nut to crack. The recessed door gave the burglar some protection from tho eye of any possible passer by, but'evidently little time was spent on tho attempt. Tho firm was not so lucky in another respect, for a rented store at the corner of Taam and Madras streets was set on fire evidently by hoys who had raised & window and thrown crackers in. Only <a few pounds* worth of damage was done to the paper stored there, > hut if the Eire Brigade had not arrived promptly there might have been a big blaze. ’ IRON BAR SAWN THROUGH. All theories about juvenile burglars are negatived to some extent by the operations on the premises of Gordon and Gotch, a little lower down Lichfield Street. The office windows, unbarred, are on Lichfield Street, but the hurgi lara did not attempt an entry there, possibly because of street lights. -.lnstead they had got into the back yard off Elm Street, a narrow right-of-way, and had actually sawed through one of the hack window bars, a solid bar o! {in iron- This had been bent upwards and the window was forced', as in the case of Mr Clarke’s warehouse, with the self-same tool. The space left between the bars small, but it was big enough to admit a man, and there are evidences that more than qjqo burglar entered. The office proper had been broken into, hut stamps had been left behind, and the theory of tho manager is that the burglars were after ■big game. They had entered, his office and littered all the contents of drawers about the floor, opening everything but finding nothing. They had then pulled down files and placed them on the floor to break the noise of tipping the safe over. There were marks on- the wall where the safe had been tipped against it before being placed on tho floor. The burglars then started with hack saws to saw through the hinges of the safe, a Phillips. This was absolutely wasted time, for the safe door could not be taken off its hinges at all. There were fragments of a broken hack saw on tho floor as if the burglars had given up sawing as a had job. Then they drilled around the keyhole, hut with no worse result than to damage the safe, which is at present undergoing repairs. The manager of Gordon and Gotch’s thinks that the burglary may have been a. daylight job, as it is estimated that there was an hour’s drilling around the lock. Tho work on the window ban must also have been rather ■ tedious. The size of the safe 'almost certainly points to the work of adults, as it Ws shifted for some distance before being overturned under the window. The burglars heard money rattling in it, although there was not a great deal. The theory is that the burglars were out for big game, as thev were very persistent with the safe. However, they showed amateur instincts in trying many old keys on the safe, as in ith© case of Mr Clarke’s burglary. - The burglaries almost certainly took place on Sunday, At Niven’s one of the staff was in on Saturday to see that all was right, and at 'Gordon and Gotch’e the' manager entered early on Monday and found the place upside dowu. THE POLICE VIEW. Inspector Dwyer, when questioned by a reporter as to the number of the burglaries reported to the police and the extent or the loss, said that only v few, minor places had been entered, ss far as he knew, and in nc case had the intruders secured any substantial haul Investigations showed that in every case the burglary was committed by very inexperienced cracksmen, indications suggesting that they were the work of boya or youth*. V - 7