BURGLARS WERE VERY DARING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18452, 1 May 1928, Page 8

BURGLARS WERE VERY DARING.

TOOK JEWELLERY FROM LIGHTED WINDOW.

WELLINGTON. April 30.^ Burglars made a haul of over £l7O worth of diamond rings and watches when they broke into the jewellery shop of Messrs Clark and Morris, Ltd., 87. Cuba Street,- last week. Entrance to the premises was gained by breaking down the back door of the shop, and the rings and watches were daringly removed from a brightlylighted window facing the street. No arrests of suspects have been made. A search of the premises was instituted, and it was immediately manifest that a serious robbery had been perpetrated, as, when the inside shop lights were switched on, empty ring “show-pads” were seen strewn about the floor and the counter. A further investigation showed that the burglars had made good their escape by a rear covered-in passage opening on to Dixon Street, and facing the Royal Oak Hotel. A jemmy was found lying on the floor close to the shattered door. As the window r contained many more valuables, jewellery, and watches, it would appear that the burglars were disturbed in the middle of their operations, and fled precipitately. The jemmy they left behind was about 2ft 6in in length, and of a type commonly employed ih opening packing cases. A peculiar feature of the affair was that nearly a dozen taxi-cabs were drawn up close to the burgled shop awaiting “fares” from the Adelphi Cabaret, the entrance of which is only twenty-five Races from the door of Messrs Clark and Morris’s premises, while the window which was so daringly raided faces the footpath at an angle of 45 degrees, and was visible from the taxi-cabs standing close to the shop. The onslaught on the back door of the shop could not have been accomplished without a considerable amount of noise, for it was badly shattered along the side to which the hinges were attached. The inside of the shop ;s not visible from the street, as the doors of the shop windows are covered with curtains.

Mr Morris was in the shop until after nine o’clock on the night of the burglary, and he observed no suspicious looking persons about when he left.