£5000 SAFE RAID

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 55, 27 November 1946, Page 6

£SOOO SAFE RAID

OPERATION TOiOK TEN MINUTES Jewellery and money, of a total value of more than £SOOO, were stolen by a London gang in a tenminute safe raid at a country house, Albourne Place, Hassocks, Sussex, it was revealed recently. None of the property—\fthich included two diamond brooches—has been recovered, and no arrests have been made. Mrs D. Stoner Crowther, owner of the property, told the Sunday Express:— “The theft took place at about 2 a.m., when we were all asleep. We heard nothing. “The whole affair had been planned carefully by someone who knew the inside of the house, and the fact that the safe was concealed in the dining-room cupboard. “The gang used two cars, which had been stolen from Hove and Shoreham, and were found next morning abandoned at the roadside halfway to London, apparently out of petrol.” The thieves climbed a heavy ladder which they took from the stable and entered through the diningroom window, added 'Mrs Stoner Crowther. They forced the locked door of the room to reach another room, where they found the key of the safe, and then emptied the safe. They stole nothing else. The police believe that the whole job took only ten minutes.