BELGIAN RUSTLER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20256, 16 March 1934, Page 1

BELGIAN RUSTLER.

U.S. Gangster Methods Used by Cattle Thief.

LONDON, March 10.

A South Bend, Indiana, man, Arthur ! Dhuvvetter, who is alleged to have applied American gangster methods to Belgian cattle-rustling, is being sought by the Belgian police on a charge of stealing cattle. Armoured cars were used to transport the stolen cattle and the gang, believed to be headed by Dhuyvetter, frequently fired on Customs officers from their travelling fortress. Dhuyvetter, while born in South Bend, is of Belgian nationality and returned to Belgium several years ago, when the American depression set in. lie lived in the town of Eecloo, near Gand. The specific charge against him, and on which a warrant was issued, is that he, with three other men. stole a herd of Dutch cattle near Charleroi. They fought a pistol battle with gendarmes and escaped. There were 20 men in the band, Belgians and Dutch. The band possessed a number of the armoured cars. A freak angle of these armoured cars was a device on the front which was used to cut steel chains which gendarmes had stretched across the highways to. capture the cattle rustlers. The rustlers got from 25 to 40 dollars a head for the stolen cattle. A Dutchman, Hector Picavet. is alleged to have been a close associate of Dhuyvetter’s and he, together with a Belgian. Maurice Moerat, also is sought by the police. Dhuyvetter is believed to be in hiding in Holland.