BANK ROBBED.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1641, 7 January 1913, Page 6

BANK ROBBED.

THIEVES OPEN STF ON 1-ROOM £2,300 MISMNG STORY OF DARING SYDNEY CRIME, s ' 1 A mysterious robbery was discovered c yesterday (says the Sydney "Telegraph" g of December 30) at the Bank of New t South Wales, Surry Hills branch, at the £ comer of Cleveland and Baptist Streets, l having been abstracted from the J strongroom. * How the theft took placo, says the \ "Telegraph," is puzzling tho wits of tho ' detective force, who, headed by Superin- c tendent Roche and Sub-Inspector Jones; '■ were ferreting, questioning, and search- j ing up to an early hour this morning. ; The bank has just been built, and it j has been used for business purposes half J a day! On Friday the bank authorities k took possession, and on Saturday, when . the bank was closed-for tho week-end, ' tho strongroom, safe contained ' .£2300, ' consisting of deposits and reserve cash. ' The robbery was discovered under curi- j ous circumstances. A small staff of officials attends te the business of. tho J bank, and ;the teller, Mr. J. Gardner, ' who acts also as accountant, arid is next J " in charge to the manager (Mr. A. C. Y. Miller), sleeps #on the premises. His ' room is upstairs, above the banking ' chamber. Yesterday afternoon at. about 5.15, he states, he went to his room, and j missed his portmanteau. At first, ho? at- ] tached no special significance to this fact, , thinking it had simply been mislaid; but, as he could* not see it after, a cursory ! glance, ho began to search.. The only ; other person who might know, he . thought, was the woman who cleaned oiit • the premises, but she declared she had not seen the. portmanteau. Then: he commenced a thorough, hunt. He went into every room and out to the back yard. ' Lving on the paved court was a packet of /copper coin. Tho mystery was out. The truth flash- v ed through Gardner's mind. Hurrying •inside, he went to the strong-room - and found that it had been opened and closed again. ■ Nearly all the money/except a few packets of coppers, was gone. And hire arose a second mystery—the knot which the detectives have to unravel.. Tlie strong-room is'fastened with-, a Chubb lock, which can only be opened by/ two keys. One of these was held" by the manager, the other by Gardner. / On Sat-, urday afternoon at I.3o—they are both insistent on this point—they locked the safe together, each noting carefully that both keys were turned. Yet now, when Gardner opened the' door, his • one key l was sufficient. Whoever had been there had. opened both locks with keys corresponding to those held by the manager and teller, taken.the money, shut.the door,' and turned only the'key corresponding to that held by Gardner, leaving the safe half locked, so that Gardner was: the only person' who could open'the lock. Had, tho manager found, anything wrong bo woiild have 'been unable to open the door. Gardner says he was thunderstruck— and as he came forward to speak to the"Telegraph" reporter he certainly looked it. "To think that they should get in . after the first day, and with, mo sleeping hofe!",ho said. \ It must have been done while I was out; but if'l could only have got one shot at them, that is all I would ask". 'v ■ ' Opening, the aide door, immediately after the discovery, ho saw a policeman, and reported the'robbery. Tn a few minutes Senior-Constable Hickey and Constable Webber were on the scene'. The detective office.was coriiraunicated with,arid Superintendent;".: Roche, ,' Sub-Inspector Jones, Detectives H. Brown and Turbet, Bannon and Campbell, Darlington and Vincent,- Detective Lonsdale, ..of Mel : bourne (who is in Sydney on special duty), Senior-constable Moody, and a number of assistant-officers arrived in a stream.-For hours they searched round the place, examining doors, windows, means of ingrtss and egress, and questioning the bank, officials.. ■ ' '. .'.'• , ' It seems reasonable to suppose that entry was obtained ,by one' of the back doors, arid that the escape was made in tho same way. The banking building is ■ quite new, being a handsome brick structure, with 6tono dressings rounding tho corner of Cleveland and Baptist Streets. It is surrounded on tho rear 6ido by a six-foot fall, oyer which the thieves: must have escaped. Another curious: feature '■ about. the affair is the weight which the robbers had 'to carry. Of the JC2300 missing, .£4OO was in gold and .£I2OO in-silver, a few pounds in copper, and the balance in notes. This, tho manager states,,would be»a heavy load for two men, and the portmanteau which disappeared from' Gardner's room would 'not'hold it. Two bags at least must have been used. The irony of it all -is that the : bank's bock yard, through which no doubt the thieves escaped,; faces the Bourke Street- Police Barracks, where an army ! of husky young constables train' all day and dream all night'for the time when they well get into holts with a real live,burglar.- . -..: ,• ■ ■■/". : i And for hoiirs after the discovery of the theft; while the" teller was narrating his , story for the hundredth time; lest any ; little point had been overlooked, the man- '. ager (Jlr. Miller) knew nothing of it. The . detectives had been hunting for him in . every possible place, but it was 9.15 when . he,was found. At that hour a telephone I message reached him at a friend's liouso ;■ in Randwick, whero he was visiting. Mr. ; Stiller hurried into the bank," but could ~ add little to what the police had already • been told. All he could do was to con- / firm the statemen ttha hq strong-room had boen'seourely locked on Saturday af- , ternoon. "I'm completely puzzled, he j told our ircprter. "How a.lock that re--1 quires two keys could-' be opened like that : is beyond me. Thero are signs that it was 1 ■ tnriipered with, but no marks of instru--3 mens on the strong-room at all. But I 1 can't say any more until I report to tho general manager." And with that, Mr. , Miller entered a itaxi-cab, and'drove out 3 to Mr. J.;Russell French's home at BelleX vue Hill, arriving at 11 o'clock! Mr. 1 Fi-onch's household had retired, but in a r few minutes .the veteran banker enmo 1 downstairs, and was informed of what -'. had happened. One thing, concludes the "Telegraph," ] stands out conspicuously. The bank is a T new building.. Recently moulds of the ? locks of on important city building were < taken by thieves while the strong-room '<■■ was. being constructed. If this could be •- done in one instance, it could be repeated - in another. /Once the moulds woto made, 3 it would be a simple matter to make r duplicate.keys. And the police are fully 3 aware that a number of particularly extt pert criminals have lately arrived in New 1 South Wales from England and America, seeking a means of livelihood easier than ? work. .