GOT RICH QUICK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1685, 27 February 1913, Page 5

GOT RICH QUICK.

A DARING BURGLAR. ROBS A VISITING COMEDY ACTOR. CARRIES OFF OVER £500. ALSO MINISTERIAL PAPERS. (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) : Auckland, 1 February 26. A burglar, : with a keen sense of humgot fairly rich quickly lost night, niostly at tho expense of Mr. Harry Corson Clarke, who plays "Blac'rie Daw" in tho comely, "Get-Rich-Quick AValling. ford." The theft bccurred at tho Grand Hotel, probably- in the early hours of tho morning, and live or uis raouls were visited. jUouoy' and jewellery worth close on iuilO was the reward or' tho intruder from Mr. Clarke alone. He i:i reported to have also stolen in notes, gold, and silver. In the bedroom occupied by Mr. Hall; private secretary to the Hon, i'. M. B, Fisher (Minister for iUarine), hi purloined a watch and chain and a small amount ot money, wallet ot papers, telegrams, and correspondence, the property of. tho Minister, wits also carried off. A bedroom occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Dadley provided the thief with, a quantity of jewellery, including two valuable bracelets, and a South Island proprietor on a visit to Auckland in connection witli'the "press week" conference, was relieved of a pocket-book; containing his steamer ticket and a iive-pound note. Other, rooms were entered, but nofur-; ther thefts : were reported. Ths Occupants Asleep. .•Witli one exception the rooms are believed to hiivo been entered by -way of the fire esct.pe. Tho thefts, were carried out while the occupants were in each room, asleep, and : ill not a single instance did the porsans robbed hoar any disturbance during; tho night, though Mrs. Dadley. was awake at 3 a.m., when she noticed tlud tliu door of her room was ajar. I- . ; . .: Detective Hammond is in charge of the 1 investigations which are being inade, but it is understood that the thief left prac-' . .tically no due behind. , • ! Mr. Henry (Jor'soii Clarke, the principal loser, of last night's raid, had an interesting story to tell when seen by a "Star" representative this morning. Ho' is accompanied by Mrs. Clarke, and his niece, and has two rooms in the hotel opening on to tho ..front balcony on the second floor. The main hall op6ns on to this balcony, as does also Mr. Clarke's bedroom.' . f j After last night's performance of "Got-Rich-Quick' Wallingford" Mr. and Mrs, Clarke and ; :Mf. Niblo sat for : a longer timo than usual over supper, and it wan 1 a.m. before the)- weiit ,to b«l. ■ ■ "Wo-wen> terribly- tired," he continued,' and " I -slept, very, soundly right through the night, hearing nothing. It was not till after 1 returned from tho bathroom this, morning that I noticed that things-about' tho room were not quite as they should have been. My coat had been hung over the back oi a chair near the 'open dobr, and papers which should have beeh in tho inside pocket were scattered over (:lio seat. Even then my..suspicions werii, hot really, droustid,, anii : ii; was not till l felt ror, my.- iij iny trouser'ji ;pocket that I. knew that we: had l).eeii,ro])bed..-:,w; . "We've; Been Trfmmed.'.' "A.ll. that-I;could say in my surprise to my wife- wits' siimmed-'up' in • tho express siun 'JVe'vi; been : trimmed.' .'(My- purse contained JJSIO in notes, in,ado up.of four Australian ;£ioU'notes, two New Zealand i£so notes, and ono. Australian-.CIO- note, while there, wero six sovereign's and a pocketful ..of silver which the' tlnef also made Off with. The money was contained in a little,; English leather - wallet, and my trousers (from which it was extracted) I had carefully folded, and laid upon ' a chair placed alongside my bed Lcarest to the wall, on the opposite sido of the room to the door. .

"The.thief,.must have got through the open window'leading from the hall on 1 t(i the balcony,- and then quietly entered my bedroom. 'The doors were open, and tho screen only;cnmo three-parts of the,way down. ■ All'lie had to do was to come in under tho screen, creep round my wife's bed, then round mine (after first trying my coat pockets), rind then explore mv trousers' pockets. No doubt 2580 dollars in- one scoop was enough for him, because )ie bothri:, fortunately, with my vest pooket;!, which contained my watch and two rings, one of which, as you can see, is,.n particularly good diamondi and. is worth i;S!00." My wifo also had undor her pijlow jewellery worth .£3OOO, and you can imagine what kind of a ! jewellery clean up there would have been if he'had got that." J ... . • j . i i Too Trustful. "My money," added Mr. Clarke, "has, of course, gone,. I'm'never likely to it again. The thief, who was probably a, slick American crook, can post the four ■£100 notes 'Jo himself at Sydney or Melbourne Post Office, and cash tha two £5) New Zealand notes here.. . ' ' . "Do I knijw the numbers of the notesP Say, don't spring that joke 'on me.v':Whs»ever thinks- of looking ht the numbei 1 of a bank-not<i, iii his possession? . ' "Why did I carry so .much money about with me? For one' thing -Americans, on tour are .in the habit of, carrying 'wads t ' andifor. another there is so much red tape about intercolonial banking that we cut it right but. No doubt, too, we became too ; trustful. This country seercied' so terribly honest that by the time >-e reached Auckland wo'calculated that thero were just about no risks in the burglar linij." it In lots of the hotels we've stayed at there were not even, locks on the doors, .ah'i when we got here, wo didn't even bother to ask' the hotel 1 proprietor for the USE' of the hotel-safe." ■, : " \ ..''An. Element of Humour." ' .• ;? There. is ! not lacking an element Of humour, nbaut Mr. Clarke's lo!>s. Night after night' :as one- of the principals (n "Get-Eich-Cluick" ne plays the part of an American crook, whose) Business it is to "trim, the boobs." M;'. Clarke's expression, "we've been trinimed," no doubt came' naturally this morning when he discovered that he had changed placed, and instead of being the stage "crook" had beconwi a real "boob." •' ■ Mr. Nibki's ro6m was more inaccessible, arid his dclor was locked,' otherwise the thief miglr: have there got >.n equally fine haul, its Mr. Niblo had considerably over £500 in his .possession. This sum, it is understand, was banked at 10 o clock sharp this":morning'. , - Tel another' touch of irony is- contained 'in the fact; that Mr. Clarke only yesterday'paid 2J per cent, income tax on tho money of which he has been robbed, a tax which Mr. Clarke, in common with most visitiiig mummers, regards as a most disagreeable imposition. He ; takes, his loss philosophically enough, ■ however agreeing with Mrs. Clarke that it might have been worse, and that in the event of their waking up while the tluef was in the'' room they might very (iasily have made "the acquaintance of tho regulation length of gas-iron piping or something worse in the shape of cold l'iad.