SMASH AND GRAB.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 25 July 1934, Page 5

SMASH AND GRAB.

Police Arrest Man at Point of Revolver. END OF INTENSIVE SEARCH. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, July 19. As I have sometimes commented on the failure of our police to effect arrests in cases of serious crime, it is nothing less than a duty to chronicle their successes, and this week they have made a very creditable score at the expense of the professional criminal class. On the evening of Friday, June 15, when George Street was lit up and crowded, a man broke the window of Angus and Coote’s jewellers’ shop with a brick, seized £2OOO worth of diamond rings, threatened with a pistol a bystander who attempted to stop him, jumped into a car in which two companions were waiting, and drove rapidly away. 1 he audacity of the crime caused a great sensation, and the C. 1.8. felt in honour bound to capture the offenders. The fact that one of the three men in the car had threatened with a revolver a policeman on point duty who tried to delay them naturally made the case more interesting, and great efforts were made to secure the criminals. Detectives were sent to Melbourne and to Brisbane, the city and suburbs were “ combed out,” the State was scanned, and the investigations of the police are said to have extendecl over 1000 miles. The great fear of the C. 1.8. was that the rings might have been taken out of the State, the metal melted down and the diamonds sold to some “ fence,” who would wait a favourable chance to send them abroad. But after a fortnight’s hectic search they get a clue which encouraged them to keep two men under careful observation. Early Morning Visit. Night and day for two weeks more they awaited certain developments, and then earl)' in the morning of Friday, July 13 (just four weeks after the robbery) they broke into a luxurious

flat at Randwick, found a man in bed, and arrested him at revolver point. The man was Eric Courtney, 34 years old, thin, sallow, well-dressed, describing himself as a salesman. Later in the day, a man driving a lorry loaded with fruit and vegetables down Pitt Street was “ taken in,” and, still wearing the leather apron of his calling, he was taken to Court, along with Courtney. With them came Patricia, O’Brien, a girl of 20, who was found at the Randwick flat with Courtney and who had in her possession a valuable ring, which the police believe was stolen in a recent jewel robbery in Melbourne. In reply to the Magistrate, the detectives stated that the lorrv man, Farley, was not the leading spirit in this adventure, but that the motor-car belonged to him or to his father, and that he lent it ’o Courtney to assist in the robbery at Angus and Coote’s. As to Courtney, the police gave him a very bad character—“ a man with a long criminal record and numerous convictions for violent crimes.” The accused were remanded and were released on substantial bail.