IMPOSTORS TRIED TO TRICK DETECTIVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19036, 3 April 1930, Page 18

IMPOSTORS TRIED TO TRICK DETECTIVES.

SAID THAT THEY COULD | FORGE BANKNOTES. '

A of international swindlers, one * a Pole and the other a Rumania!'.' who for 3*ears past had earned a hand- j some income in the principal cities oi , Europe by a novel and ingenious im-, posture, have come to grief in Berlin., They unwittingly put their heads: into | the lion's mouth by trying to swindle j police officers. Their speciality was to j persuade people with more cash than i principles to finance the pretended for- ■ gery of banknotes. A couple of years ago the pair; secured a haul of £4OOO by this means in ! Berlin. For obvious reasons, however,) the bulk of their victims preferred to j lose the money advanced rather than ‘ run the risk involved in denunciation. Recently the two impostors returned to Berlin, and a few days later, smartly dressed and self-assured as usual, they scraped an acquaintance with two pros-perous-looking Germans who were sitting at the next table in the entrance hall of an hotel. From motives which were possibly not identical, the friendship between the two couples ripened rapidly, and before long the foreigners felt it safe to i impart the secret that they were the < only men in the world who could pro- j duce absolutely impeccable dollar notes cheaply and swiftly. When the Germans politely expressed scepticism, they were told that, if they liked, they could see the trick done at once and in their own home. This offer was accepted, and the four drove to the foreigners’ hotel to get the necessary implements, which, packed in cases, were carried to the residence oi | one of the Germans. Here an apparatus ! with various containers and rubber' tubes, a copying press, a spirit burner. | a red lamp, bottles of diverse sizes and j contents, and sundry other odds and j ends were laid out on a table with much mystery and show of precaution.! Then after abundant hocus-pocus a 500-dollar (£100) note was placed bu i tween two sheets of paper, put into the j press, and presently taken out with a ; duplicate bearing a different number. j The Germans were much impressed, j but one of them asked that the process | might be repeated. To this the foreign- j ers readily agreed, but at the moment, when the press was about to be screwed up the Germans seized the handle, and, drawing out the two sheets Oi paper between which the impression was supposed to take place, showed that they already contained two bank notes, one having been inserted at the last moment by dexterous sleight oi hand. Before the swindlers had time to recover their self-possession one of the Germans, producing from his pocket the necessary authority, declared them under arrest. The incautious swindlers had had the misfortune to try their trick on a commissioner of the Berlin criminal police. Intimation of the arrest has been *--ent to the police of all the capitals of Europe.