SMASH-AND-GRAB RAID

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 114, 17 May 1933, Page 10

SMASH-AND-GRAB RAID

DARING DAYLIGHT ROBBERY £12,000 WORTH OF JEWELLERY. LIVEKIED CHAUFFEUR IN CAR, Motor bandits made a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller’s shop window in Grafton Street, Mayfair, London, on March 31, and carried off rings worth £12,000. As they escaped after the raid, they drove their car on to the pavement and knocked down two women. One of the women had to be taken to hospital. Two half-hoops of diamonds were dropped by the bandits as they fled. One was picked up on the pavement. Grafton Street was full of people when tho bandits’ car drove up and stopped opposite one of the windows of Garrard and Company, Crown jewellers and goldsmiths, whose premises are on tho corner of Grafton Street and Albemarle Street. The car—a smart-looking saloon —was driven by a man in livery, with another man sitting beside him. The chauffeur stayed at the wheel with the engine running and tho door of tho car open. The other man got out. He crossed the pavement rapidly, carrying a motor jack wrapped in brown paper, and throw it at the window. He smashed tho window as well as another window in a showcase. Then ho grabbed a tray of rings—emeralds diamonds, rubies—and bolted for tho car, which drove away. A little later it was found abandoned. Jerked into the Road. Mr. A C. Mann, an assistant at Garrard’s, and an ex-Rugby footballer, who tried to pursue the bandits, said:— “I was sitting at my desk, which is practically opposite the raided window, when I heard a tremendous crash, and saw something heavy drop inside the showcase. A car was outside, and I could see that a man had put his arm through tho broken windows and had snatched one of the trays of rings. “I rushed outside at once, but by then th 0 man was back inside th" which was moving off. 1 ran after it. jumped on the running board and tried to smash the window in order to grab the thief, but my hold was a precarious one, and a violent jerk of the car in accelerating threw me full-length on the road.” Mr. E. Harris, another assistant of Garrard’s, said ho never saw a car so recklessly manoeuvred as the one driven by the bandits. ’“When I got outside,” he said, “tho car was at the •corner and a tradesman’s van was just backing out from the other side of the road. If tho van had backed another yard tho bandits could not possibly have got by. But tho van driver—who did not realise what was happening—stopped to allow tho car to pass. Even then there was no room for tho car to turn in the roadway. So the driver turned tho car on to the pavement between the post and the wall of the building, and got through that way. It was a fearfully tight squeeze, and in doing it two women were knocked down. They were standing talking at

the corner, and could not got out of the way in time. The Injured Women. *‘l helped o''C of the women to her feet, and supported her, with another man, until the arrival of the ambulance. She said she could not get out | of tho way as the car was upon her so suddenly. Her nose was badly cut and her hands bruised, and she complained of injury to her ankle, Sho was also evidently suffering from shock. The other woman was an old match-seller who has had a pitch on that spot for a long time. She was not hurt very much. ” Mrs. Mary Thornton, a crippled match-seller, has stood for the last 15 years on the corner of Grafton Street. Usually she supports her crutch on an iron post at the edge of the pavement. This morning, however, she had moved back just a few fett to get out of the wind. “I was talking to a lady,” she said, “when I heard a smash of glass. People were shouting and screaming, and then I saw a big car coming straight at me. ]t rushed right across tho pavement and knocked me down, scattering my matches all over the place. If I had been, standing on my usual corner 1 must have been killed. “Just what happened I never saw. I was so terrified, but somehow I managed to roll clear of the wheels. When I got up the lady with me was all cut and bleeding, and until the ambulance came I tried to bandage her up with my handkerchief.”